# Drunken Sailors.

Type: Note
Date: 2026-06-01
Tags: Bret Victor, Richard Hamming, Stripe Press, Dynamicland
Location: Sydney, Australia
Canonical: https://www.aaronroot.net/journal/drunken-sailors

After reading Richard Hamming's *You and Your Research*, I ended up coming across [*The Art of Doing Science and Engineering*](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/530415.The_Art_of_Doing_Science_and_Engineering) through [Stripe Press](https://press.stripe.com/the-art-of-doing-science-and-engineering). In a flash of serendipity, the foreword is by Bret Victor, who I have been [rediscovering](/journal/inventing-on-principle) as part of my investigations on how to design better instruments. It's super interesting to learn about the work of Dynamicland and their research in finding better ways for ['real people, in the real world, to explore ideas together'](https://dynamicland.org/2024/Intro/). Lots of dots connecting at the same time. Also a nice reminder that if you have a vision, the universe has a funny way of helping you stumble there in fewer steps. From Hamming:
> It is well known the drunken sailor who staggers to the left or right with n independent random steps will, on the average, end up about √n steps from the origin. But if there is a pretty girl in one direction, then his steps will tend to go in that direction and he will go a distance proportional to n. In a lifetime of many, many independent choices, small and large, a career with a vision will get you a distance proportional to n, while no vision will get you only the distance √n. In a sense, the main difference between those who go far and those who do not is some people have a vision and the others do not and therefore can only react to the current events as they happen.