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

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

#21

Post by ohwellhere »

mooneater wrote: post #19

> trying to work the concepts out in my own mind and to anticipate what the authors are going to say before turning each page. I usually fail to guess what the next page holds, but the fact that I've tried and failed makes me more ready to understand why the authors chose the paths that they did TIL Donald Knuth operates a bit like GPT-3 but for research paper narrative.

I see it differently. It's not prediction based on anything statistical but based on one's understanding.

I've made it a habit to ask myself what I expect the output to be for any programming operation, and why. It forces me to gain clarity into my mental model of what's happening, and it immediately highlights deficiencies in my model when it's proven wrong.

I ask the same of others when I pair program with juniors or interviewees. I find super useful all around.

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

#22

Post by pessimizer »

zerop wrote: post #4

I admire Donald Knuth for his contribution on algorithms and CS stuff. He is one of greatest computer scientist of our time. But would his every advice outside CS fields will be great? I am not sure about this.

Do you require advice to be great before you listen to it? I tend to decide whether advice was great after I've heard it, or better still after I've put it into action.

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

#23

Post by hintymad »

I still read TAOCP, particularly vol 4, for fun from time to time, but I have to admit that the days are long gone when an ordinary engineer needs to study algorithms in depth. The vast number of libraries and services are good enough that most people just need to know a few terms to function adequately for their jobs. I guess it's a good thing as it shows how robust the software abstractions are, in contrast to mathematics. It's just that I feel quite nostalgic about the countless days I spent understanding, proving, and implementing fundamental algorithms and data structures.

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

#24

Post by mooneater »

ohwellhere wrote: post #21
mooneater wrote: post #19

> trying to work the concepts out in my own mind and to anticipate what the authors are going to say before turning each page. I usually fail to guess what the next page holds, but the fact that I've tried and failed makes me more ready to understand why the authors chose the paths that they did TIL Donald Knuth operates a bit like GPT-3 but for research paper narrative.

I see it differently. It's not prediction based on anything statistical but based on one's understanding. I've made it a habit to ask myself what I expect the output to be for any programming operation, and why. It forces me to gain clarity into my mental model of what's happening, and it immediately highlights deficiencies in my model when it's proven wrong. I ask the same of others when I pair program with juniors…

> not prediction based on anything statistical but based on one's understanding

It is still statistical. You still want to predict a distribution over expected next token.

However, the function needed to estimate the likely next tokens are not simple max over enumerated next tokens like in a language model. It's more like a transition model in reinforcement learning.

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

#25

Post by madisp »

bigcat12345678 wrote: post #7

> Recently, I came across a few old and new interviews of Donald Knuth I have developed the conclusion that reading digestive summary from original source materials is ultimately ineffective for me at this stage of the life. Unfortunately, the author did not provide links to these interviews. For anyone who is writing a summary from other source material, please do provide references. That's one of the things I learn…

probably the Lex Fridman podcast interviews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdBfsXbST8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1R8FYUJm0

the second one is definitely where the last paragraph in the article is from. Weird that the interview is dated 2021-09-09 and the post is 2020-04-30?

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

#26

Post by jacobolus »

thomasahle wrote: post #16
Hasz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the eponymous fundamental theorem of algebra is a good place to start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_theorem_of_algebra

From the same page: "the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra is neither fundamental, nor a theorem of algebra"

For more on this theme, see: https://www.math.nyu.edu/faculty/edwardsd/carnegie.pdf

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

#28

Post by bo1024 »

mooneater wrote: post #9

> they haven’t learned the fundamental ideas of algebra I'd very much love to know exactly what Knuth considers the "fundamental ideas of algebra"!

It sounds like he's just talking about using variables to solve equations. I think the point he's making in that section is just about learning a good process so you can solve harder and harder problems, e.g.

Problem 1: Two numbers add to 100, one is 20 larger.

Smart student: oh, I see, 60 and 40.

Dumb student Knuth: x + y = 100 and x = y + 20, solves to x=60, y=40.

..

Problem 2: Four numbers sum to 1024, one is half the sum of the other three less 17, one of the others...

Smart student: uh, I don't see the answer.

Dumb student Knuth: w + x + y + z = 1024, w = (x + y + z)/2 - 17, ... solved it.

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

#29

Post by mjreacher »

madisp wrote: post #25
bigcat12345678 wrote: post #7

> Recently, I came across a few old and new interviews of Donald Knuth I have developed the conclusion that reading digestive summary from original source materials is ultimately ineffective for me at this stage of the life. Unfortunately, the author did not provide links to these interviews. For anyone who is writing a summary from other source material, please do provide references. That's one of the things I learn…

probably the Lex Fridman podcast interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdBfsXbST8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1R8FYUJm0 the second one is definitely where the last paragraph in the article is from. Weird that the interview is dated 2021-09-09 and the post is 2020-04-30?

He also did an interview for the Web of Stories project which is available on YouTube and has his thoughts on his life and various other curious topics.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzeNLngr1Jq...

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

#30

Post by jjice »

madisp wrote: post #25
bigcat12345678 wrote: post #7

> Recently, I came across a few old and new interviews of Donald Knuth I have developed the conclusion that reading digestive summary from original source materials is ultimately ineffective for me at this stage of the life. Unfortunately, the author did not provide links to these interviews. For anyone who is writing a summary from other source material, please do provide references. That's one of the things I learn…

probably the Lex Fridman podcast interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdBfsXbST8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1R8FYUJm0 the second one is definitely where the last paragraph in the article is from. Weird that the interview is dated 2021-09-09 and the post is 2020-04-30?

Wow, Lex has gotten some of the greats on his podcast. I should probably give it a go. The few episodes I've seen were more shallow than I was looking for as an engineer, but I assumed that was because he's helping bring these interviews and ideas to a wider audience.
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