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Comment by teleforce | Hacker News Reader

If you want to know the research culture and the environment of Bell Labs from author's first hand experiences, I'd highly recommended this book by Hamming [1].

[1] The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard W. Hamming:

https://press.stripe.com/the-art-of-doing-science-and-engine...

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My dad was at this talk in 1986 that PG shares on his blog:

https://paulgraham.com/hamming.html

Said it was amazing.

Hamming gave that talk many many times. There are recordings of it on YouTube. It is also the final chapter of his book "The Art of Doing Science and Engineering", which, IMHO, is worth reading in its entirety.

It's been out of stock for nearly a year. Interesting in a post talking about AT&T and Bell Labs to point out that Stripe struggles to maintain an inventory of niche printed books.

You're welcome to borrow my copy, feel free to ping me.

Has it? It seems to be available on Amazon at least.

Not in stock on Amazon. Just a bunch of third party sellers with varying ship dates months out. Nor Powells, other vendors, nor any used copies, nothing by ISBN search either.

Google says "in stock" in the search result. I do a search about once a month and click around. I've been doing it long enough that I can actually watch things get worse. No AI result yet, so there's still room to fall.

Have you checked the art of using the library and other data services?

The "bad" in my username refers to attitude not competency. I'm attempting to source a physical copy for a library as the nearest copy is 320 miles away. That and the librarian code of ethics eliminates "alternative data services" if you're hinting at sketchy PDF downloads. Still not a single copy available for sale in North America and an astonishing number of shady overseas sellers who cancel orders. Google result still says "in stock" on Amazon. Rock on.

For what it's worth I bought it on "abebooks" which is also just amazon but usually cheaper, and it did arrive, in mint condition, and pretty cheaply too.

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