

Love at First Byte - tojileon
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2006/mayjun/features/knuth.html

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bluishgreen
Ok, Knuths(Gods) books are like the Feynman volumes in fame. But I have never
fully read any of them while I did read Feynman Vol I completely.I feel knuths
volumes didn't impact my life as much as Paul Grahams writings on lisp. I am
not asskissing. It's a plain fact.

Sometimes I wonder if God is not being modest and just being plain with this
"He once told me that his very talent is detail and he didn't consider himself
all that brilliant otherwise. He's made it clear that he considers himself
less of an innovator than a cataloguer."

I am a math major and I have seen some nasty stuff in my life. Might it be
true that people are in awe because no one really understood the terse pages.
Another Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge?

But I am not willing to disregard GOD just yet. If any of you think I am
mistaken, could you please leave a comment as to the highlights of Knuths
career that one should be aware of. The one thing that I am aware and use
frequently is the KMP algorithm.(Which has a K for Knuth in it)

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davidw
What's odd is that such a bright guy could so badly estimate the curves of 1)
his ability to produce new material, and 2) new research and developments in
computer science that he wants to cover in the aforementioned material.
They're diverging, and quickly.

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comatose_kid
Well, I think the poor estimates reflect more on the size of his goal than on
anything else. Big goals aren't as easily project managed as the typical
software feature.

~~~
davidw
The 'poor estimate' is estimating the one person can keep up with an entire
field. It's simply not possible.

