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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)

#81

Post by anthk »

commandlinefan wrote: post #66
dllthomas wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish there were a course one could take on algebra itself Depending a little on just what you mean, that's likely the upper-division undergraduate math department course called "Algebra" at most universities. Groups and rings and such.

> the upper-division undergraduate math department course called "Algebra" And be careful what you wish for - the way eighth-grade algebra hurt your brain when you were 13 will be nothing compared to the way abstract algebra will hurt your brain when you're 20.

In my case abstract algebra was much easier to grasp than polynomials with no context.

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

#82

Post by hintymad »

SoftTalker wrote: post #74
hintymad wrote: post #23

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 math…

> the days are long gone when an ordinary engineer needs to study algorithms in depth Except to pass the interview screens at high-profile tech companies?

Most leetcoders simply memorize one or two solutions instead of studying algorithms holistically. I suspect that many would spend time understanding that generating gray code can be mapped to mixed-radix number system (nor should us anyway, albeit it's really really cool). Leetcode does not require understanding of advanced data structures either. Instead, it's full of clever tricks and specific solutions with which entry-level ACM participants are well versed.

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

#83

Post by gkop »

maxerickson wrote: post #43
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…

Ironically, a significant portion of Knuth's lifetime work consists of digested summaries of original source materials.

(In his digestive summaries, Knuth does provide citations, to be clear)

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

#84

Post by maxerickson »

gkop wrote: post #83
maxerickson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, a significant portion of Knuth's lifetime work consists of digested summaries of original source materials.

(In his digestive summaries, Knuth does provide citations, to be clear)

I guess I don't understand why someone would make the contrary assumption about famous academic work.

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

#85

Post by SoftTalker »

Every day I look at the things that I'm ready to do, and choose the one that I like the least, the one that's least fun — the task that I would most like to procrastinate from doing, but for which I have no good reason for procrastination.

I'm not sure I've seen this approach to combating procrastination before. I can see how it might work: once you've completed the thing you least wanted to do, you might feel relief that the distasteful task is done and you can then dive into other stuff without that nagging you in the back of your mind.

I think I will give this a try...

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

#86

Post by gkop »

maxerickson wrote: post #84
gkop wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(In his digestive summaries, Knuth does provide citations, to be clear)

I guess I don't understand why someone would make the contrary assumption about famous academic work.

For sure, also I don’t assume people know much about Knuth or expectations for academic work.

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

#87

Post by gkop »

mymythisisthis wrote: post #46
maxerickson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, a significant portion of Knuth's lifetime work consists of digested summaries of original source materials.

Do you have quick summary of Knuth stating this? Just want to know, curious.

He doesn’t have to state this. Look at his work.

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

#88

Post by dllthomas »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #80
dllthomas wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish there were a course one could take on algebra itself Depending a little on just what you mean, that's likely the upper-division undergraduate math department course called "Algebra" at most universities. Groups and rings and such.

I thought of that, but it sounded like it was just studying particular mathematical structures -- not learning "how to read arbitrary algebraic expressions". Or perhaps algebraic expressions in different mathematical specialties are differentiated enough to make knowledge about how to read a given expression mostly non-transferable?

Ah, to my mind "algebra" is the structure. It sounds like you want a survey of mathematical notation?

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

#89

Post by bo1024 »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #51
bo1024 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Algebra goes so much deeper than this. I had so much trouble with my compilers class because my professor expressed all the ideas and principles of compilation using algebra. So I second OP's comment - I wish there were a course one could take on algebra itself - not merely numeric expressions with variables.

Yes of course it does and Knuth is well aware (as am I to a lesser extent), but I’m just saying I don’t think it’s relevant to the point he’s making here.

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

#90

Post by bakul »

JoshCole wrote: post #57

> it's selfish to keep beautiful discoveries a secret. I found a beautiful thing recently and planned to do a write-up on it eventually, but I know I might get distracted. So I'll share the beauty here since I don't want to be selfish! In K means clustering you know you've stabilized if centers t = centers (t-1). Stabilization has occurred because no clusters were reassigned during the lloyd iteration. People already…

I think we naturally want to share what we find beautiful as it is an expression of our joy as well as it enhances it. What we usually don't want to share is what we think will be profitable.
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