Allen Newell's Precepts

Jim Morris

• Do what you love, love what you do. His incredible energy and enthusiasm sprung from this.
• Help others to find a similar state, no matter how different their choices might be. Since he was happy and secure in the rightness of what he was doing, Allen was open-minded about what other people did, and often could help them make good choices.
• Don't worry about how intrinsically smart you are or anyone else is. I never saw him feel threatened by another person's brilliance or offended by their lack of it. He only judged performance.
• Be intellectually tough -- uniformly on everyone. Allen was intellectually the toughest critic I ever had. At first, I didn't think this fit with his supportive attitude. But then I realized that it wasn't personal; he applied tough standards to himself and everyone else.
• Be careful about what you commit to do, and then really do it. He agreed to do only some of the things I asked him, but he would always help with something he believed was important. When he did, there was no doubt about his level of effort.