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)
Knuth's "Algorithm X" (also known by the name of its implementation strategy, "Dancing Links") is also a useful result due to him. And I'm sure Knuth is both brilliant and extremely detail oriented.
I personally find "Introduction to Algorithms" by CLRS to be way, way more useful and readable than TAOCP.
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.
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.
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)