Thomas C. Erren; Tracy E. Slanger; J. Valérie Groß; Philip E. Bourne; Paul Cullen

“ Focus on the Future but Don’t Ignore the Past As usual, Hamming put it trenchantly: “Teachers should prepare the student for the student’s future, not for the teacher’s past” [ [3] ] . Some teachers object to this, saying that no one can know the future. This is of course true but misses the point. We do not need to know what will happen—we just need to be ready when it does. ”

“ We believe these will equip the reader to more confidently face the unremitting emergence of an exponentially increasing amount of new knowledge, coupled with the equally relentless obsolescence of established knowledge, in a world containing a greater number of scientists than ever before. Our rules promote a certain “style of thinking.” They also emphasize orientation towards the future and—we hope—will help the reader learn how to learn while motivating him or her to continue learning throughout life. ”

“ Be Prepared to Compete and Interact with a Greater and More Rapidly Increasing Number of Scientists Than at Any Time in the Past As Hamming points out, despite a levelling-off in some of the richer countries [ [9] ] , the number of scientists worldwide continues to increase rapidly, and it has been estimated that about 90% of the scientists who ever lived are alive today. ”