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All The Letters Being Slow To Criticise State Machine In Real Life Coxeter Once Nerd Sniped Conway Not Always Your Fault Remembering Conway Perception Of Space Parallelogram Puzzle Back Of The Envelope COVID19 A Point Against The Axiom Of Choice In Defense Of The Axiom Of Choice Journeying Home Through Storm Dennis Earth Radius Refined Volume Of A Sphere Big Oh And Relations Mathematical Relations Introducing Big Oh Constant Differences Algorithms And Sizes Of Instances Introducing Time Complexity The Linear Frog Seventy Versus One Hundred Revisited How The Farrago Works Seventy Versus One Hundred Powers Of Two In Lex Order Emerging E Expanded Rage Inducing System Implementation The Book Is Not Always Right Emerging E Impossible To Translate Waiting In Vain Non Repeating Decimals Rational Repeats Why Is It Lovely Compiling Crypto Connections Exploring Connections Between Crypto Systems Elwyn Berlekamp Has Left Us Root Cause Analysis And The Photocopier Question The Up Down Tides The Fore Aft Tide The Sideways Tide Wrapping Up Wrapping Up The Earth The Other Wrapping The Earth Problem Wrapping The Earth The Ring Of Steel Rounding Up The Ropes Other Other Other Rope Around The Earth Rope Around The Earth Refined The Other Rope Around The Earth Elementary Estimates Latitude Correction Just Give Me The Answer More Musing On Pollard Rho Idle Thoughts About Pollard Rho When Optimising Code Measure A Dog Called Mixture Another Pay Pal Scam Why Top Posting Has Won Unexpected Interaction Of Features Archimedes Hat Box Theorem Considering A Sphere To Link Or Not To Link Generic Advice For Writing A Thesis Just Teach My Child The Maths Not A Spectator Sport Left Truncatable Prime The Doctor And The Lawyer Four Points Two Distances Proof Meeting Ron Graham Napkin Ring Versus Spherical Cap The Four Points Puzzle Radius Of The Earth Part Two Grep Timing Anomaly The Radius Of The Earth This Works To Cure My Hiccoughs Perhaps We Saved One Thinking About Mastodon Disappearing Trains On Virgin The Independence Game One Of My Favourite Puzzles Thinking About Recursion Memorising The Tube Spikey Spheres Surprisingly Quick An Unexpected Fraction You Have To Admire Their Optimism Representatives Matter Pythagoras By Incircle A Puzzle About Puzzles How Not To Do Twitter Calculating 52 Factorial By Hand Small Things Might Not Be So Small Not If You Hurry Factoring Via Graph Three Colouring Another Proof Of The Doodle Theorem When Obvious Is Not Obvious Graph Three Colouring The Doodle Theorem Be Careful What You Say The Mutilated Chessboard Revisited A Mirror Copied The Other Other Rope Around The Earth Photocopy A Mirror The Point Of The Banach Tarski Theorem Sieve Of Eratosthenes In Python Fast Perrin Test Russian Peasant Multiplication FindingPerrinPseudoPrimes Part2 FindingPerrinPseudoPrimes Part1 The Unwise Update Miles Per Gallon Tracking An Item On Hacker News Hacker News User Ages Poking The Dusty Corners There Is No Time For This Publically Sharing Links Learning Times Tables Graceful Degradation Diagramming Maths Topics On The Rack Square Root By Long Division Beyond The Boundary Fill In The Gaps Software Checklist NASA Space Crews The Birthday Paradox The Trapezium Conundrum Revisiting The Ant The Ant And The Rubber Band Irrationals Exist Multiple Choice Probability Puzzle Random Eratosthenes Wrapping Up Square Dissection Dissecting A Square Part 2 Dissecting A Circle Dissecting A Square An Oddity In Tennis Decision Tree For Tennis Decision Trees In Games A Matter Of Convention Do You Nourish Or Tarnish Binary Search Reconsidered Two Equals Four The Lost Property Office The Forgiving User Interface Setting Up RSS Withdrawing From Hacker News Additionally, some earlier writings:

Random Writings. Colins Blog 2010 Colins Blog 2009 Colins Blog 2008 Colins Blog 2007 Colins Blog Before 2007
Sell yourself, Sell Your Work ... Doing technically brilliant work may be enough for your personal gratification, but you should never think it's enough. If you lock yourself in a room and do the most marvellous work but don't tell anyone, then no one will know, no one will benefit, and the work will be lost. You may have derived personal satisfaction from it, but as far as the wider world is concerned, you may as well not have bothered. For the world to benefit from your work, and therefore for you to benefit fully from your work, you have to make it known. In short, you have to "advertise". I've dealt with any number of technically brilliant people who produce outstanding work. The majority of them never bothered to write down their work and communicate it to others - report writing is too boring, uninteresting, and hard. And irrelevant. Or so they thought. But if you've done great work, if you've produced superb software or fixed a fault with an aeroplane or investigated a problem ... without telling anyone, your work is wasted. You have to write, you have to tell people, and you have to do so in a way that they will take notice. You don't necessarily need to make it flashy, whizzy, colourful and animated, but you do have to present it well. Spelling errors may not obscure the meaning, but you will lose some of your audience. Poor punctuation may not matter to you, but your intended audience may be put off by it. Muddied writing with no clear purpose makes it hard for the reader to understand your point. Write clearly and concisely, however, and your work may well save others' time and effort. And gain you reputation. Richard W Hamming wrote about one's work: ... you can either do it in such a fashion that people can indeed build on what you've done, or you can do it in such a fashion that the next person has to essentially duplicate again what you've done ... ... it is not sufficient to do a job, you have to sell it. "Selling" to a scientist is an awkward thing to do. It's very ugly; you shouldn't have to do it. The world is supposed to be waiting, and when you do something great, they should rush out and welcome it. But the fact is everyone is busy with their own work. You must present it so well that they will set aside what they are doing, look at what you've done, read it, and come back and say, "Yes, that was good." ... ask why you read some articles and not others. You had better write your report so when it is published ... as the readers are turning the pages they won't just turn your pages but they will stop and read yours. If they don't stop and read it, you won't get credit. You have to learn to write clearly and well so that people will read it, you must learn to give reasonably formal talks, and you also must learn to give informal talks. From "You and Your Research". For reference, some of Hamming's work includes Hamming codes, the Hamming matrix, the Hamming window, Hamming numbers, the Hamming bound, and the Hamming distance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hamming It seems crazy to require that technically talented people should be forced to spend time doing something - report writing - at which they're not gifted, but how else can the world benefit from their brilliance? Without communicating their ideas, their work is lost and might never have been. Of course, this is one of the benefits of being an entrepreneur or the founder of a business. The benefits of your work are there to be seen - you don't have to play the office politics of constantly justifying your existence. If you don't have customers, or if you don't have advertisers, then you won't survive. If you do have customers, or you do have advertisers, then your existence is justified by the work you've done. But you still have to sell! You now have to sell your company's product or service, you now have to get known so that people will start to use your product or service, or people will constantly visit your website, which then attracts advertising. Whatever, you need to sell! A company lives and dies by what it sells. Some people say that the sole purpose of a company is to make money. Others are more idealistic and say that it's to make the world better, or to make their employees' lives better, or some other goal. But without making money, everything else is moot. But the word "sell" doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means. Richard W. Hamming wrote about this in his talk entitled "You and Your Research", given as a Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar on 1986/03/07. The side-box is a small excerpt from this talk, transcriptions of which can easily be found on-line. So let the world benefit from your work.

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ADogCalledMixture AMatterOfConvention AMirrorCopied APointAgainstTheAxiomOfChoice APuzzleAboutPuzzles AlgorithmsAndSizesOfInstances AllTheLetters AnOddityInTennis AnUnexpectedFraction AnatomyOfAHit AnotherPayPalScam AnotherProofOfTheDoodleTheorem ArchimedesHatBoxTheorem BackOfTheEnvelopeCOVID19 BeCarefulWhatYouSay BeingSlowToCriticise BeyondTheBoundary BigOhAndRelations BinarySearchReconsidered Calculating52FactorialByHand ColinsBlog ColinsBlog2007 ColinsBlog2008 ColinsBlog2009 ColinsBlog2010 ColinsBlogBefore2007 CompilingCryptoConnections ConsideringASphere ConstantDifferences CoxeterOnceNerdSnipedConway DecisionTreeForTennis DecisionTreesInGames DiagrammingMathsTopics DisappearingTrainsOnVirgin DissectingACircle DissectingASquare DissectingASquarePart2 DoYouNourishOrTarnish EarthRadiusRefined ElementaryEstimates ElwynBerlekampHasLeftUs EmergingE EmergingEExpanded ExploringConnectionsBetweenCryptoSystems FactoringViaGraphThreeColouring FastPerrinTest FillInTheGaps FindingPerrinPseudoPrimes_Part1 FindingPerrinPseudoPrimes_Part2 FourPointsTwoDistancesProof GenericAdviceForWritingAThesis GracefulDegradation GraphThreeColouring GrepTimingAnomaly HackerNewsUserAges HowNotToDoTwitter HowTheFarragoWorks IdleThoughtsAboutPollardRho ImpossibleToTranslate InDefenseOfTheAxiomOfChoice IntroducingBigOh IntroducingTimeComplexity IrrationalsExist JourneyingHomeThroughStormDennis JustGiveMeTheAnswer JustTeachMyChildTheMaths LatitudeCorrection LearningTimesTables LeftTruncatablePrime MathematicalRelations MeetingRonGraham MemorisingTheTube MilesPerGallon MoreMusingOnPollardRho MultipleChoiceProbabilityPuzzle NASASpaceCrews NapkinRingVersusSphericalCap NonRepeatingDecimals NotASpectatorSport NotAlwaysYourFault NotIfYouHurry OnTheRack OneOfMyFavouritePuzzles OtherOtherOtherRopeAroundTheEarth ParallelogramPuzzle PerceptionOfSpace PerhapsWeSavedOne PhotocopyAMirror PokingTheDustyCorners PowersOfTwoInLexOrder PublicallySharingLinks PythagorasByIncircle RadiusOfTheEarthPartTwo RageInducingSystemImplementation RandomEratosthenes RandomWritings RationalRepeats RememberingConway RepresentativesMatter RevisitingTheAnt RootCauseAnalysisAndThePhotocopierQuestion RopeAroundTheEarthRefined RoundingUpTheRopes RussianPeasantMultiplication SettingUpRSS SeventyVersusOneHundred SeventyVersusOneHundredRevisited SieveOfEratosthenesInPython SmallThingsMightNotBeSoSmall SoftwareChecklist SpikeySpheres SquareRootByLongDivision StateMachineInRealLife SurprisinglyQuick TheAntAndTheRubberBand TheBirthdayParadox TheBookIsNotAlwaysRight TheDoctorAndTheLawyer TheDoodleTheorem TheForeAftTide TheForgivingUserInterface TheFourPointsPuzzle TheIndependenceGame TheLinearFrog TheLostPropertyOffice TheMutilatedChessboardRevisited TheOtherOtherRopeAroundTheEarth TheOtherRopeAroundTheEarth TheOtherWrappingTheEarthProblem ThePointOfTheBanachTarskiTheorem TheRadiusOfTheEarth TheRingOfSteel TheSidewaysTide TheTrapeziumConundrum TheUnwiseUpdate TheUpDownTides ThereIsNoTimeForThis ThinkingAboutMastodon ThinkingAboutRecursion ThisWorksToCureMyHiccoughs ToLinkOrNotToLink TrackingAnItemOnHackerNews TwoEqualsFour UnexpectedInteractionOfFeatures VolumeOfASphere WaitingInVain WhenObviousIsNotObvious WhenOptimisingCodeMeasure WhyIsItLovely WhyTopPostingHasWon WithdrawingFromHackerNews WrappingTheEarth WrappingUpSquareDissection WrappingUpWrappingUpTheEarth YouHaveToAdmireTheirOptimism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hamming Site hosted by Colin and Rachel Wright:

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