Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

Re:Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happine... by bigcat12345678 on Monday May 23, 2022 @04:10PM (#31484229)

The most valuable part of TAOCP, for me, is its writing.

I've never read anything that is more precise or intuitive. TAOCP is also pleasant to read.

It's the book that I go back to once a while after being bothered by the sloppiness in the documents and papers and many other written materials consumed everyday. Reading it gives a sense of enlightenment that regardless of all those poor writing, there is hope to reach the clarity that I have the deepest desire for.

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Re:Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happine... by StillLrning123 on Tuesday May 24, 2022 @01:03AM (#31488199)

Listening to interviews and reading Donald Knuth has profound effect on my mental state. It's like diving into another dimension which have concerns that are orthogonal to my daily business. It's an immense pleasure for me to rediscover this mental state from time to time. And this is to me Donald Knuth greatest achievement: To let us look into his thinking process and putting words to guide us through it.

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Re:Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happine... by orlp on Monday May 23, 2022 @04:39PM (#31484515)

My only gripe with TAOCP is its usage of MMIX.

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Re:Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happine... by DeathArrow on Tuesday May 24, 2022 @01:54AM (#31488477)

Yep, at least he could use an OOP language, and some niceties like builders, decorators, factories, 15 layers of abstraction and indirection so everybody knows it's pro grade stuff. :)

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Re:Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happine... by laichzeit0 on Monday May 23, 2022 @11:42PM (#31487737)

If I where to ask “So what should he have used instead?” it would quickly derail this thread. There would be no consensus. Knuth probably foresaw this exact problem and more.

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Re:Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happine... by disgruntledphd2 on Wednesday May 25, 2022 @07:37AM (#31503078)

Yeah, if you read the intro to Volume 1, he specifically calls this out as an issue. I personally think he's taking a subtle dig at Numerical Recipes here, which did take the "modern" language approach.

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Re:Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happine... by DeathArrow on Tuesday May 24, 2022 @01:55AM (#31488484)

Half of people would say Javascript and the other half Python. :)

Yes, I know those languages didn't exist at the time Knuth was forging his books.

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