221–229 of 229 posts
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True. The editor on the left side does look like emacs.
That's the FVWM window manager. His FVWM config (or at least some version of it) is available if you're curious: https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/programs/.fvwm2rc .
> I write an average of five new programs every week. Poets have to write poems. I have to write computer programs. It seems more obvious now that I read it. A lot of programmers out there, including myself, are looking for ways to improve their skills and I never thought to myself to write more programs. And not just programs for the sake of programs, but programs that force you to explain to the computer that you u…
>The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A"…
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Is this your way of saying you're a programmer not a computer scientist? Because his job is as a scientist. Calling his exercises simple riddles is disrespectful. It's like calling doing a 5km run every morning, simple walking. The proof is in the pudding, he has impacted the world in a profound way. But on a more positive note. Which non-cs programmer heroes exists today? I'm thinking John Carmack.
Yeah, of course I have never thought as myself as a computer scientist, I like my job/title as a programmer, I don't see any downside in that, manipulating data is fun. I don't personally have "programmer heroes", maybe it's because I'm 39 years old and as such I haven't believed in cowboy-like programmers for almost a decade now. I did strongly believe though in what Aaron Swartz used to do and in what he used to be…
Maybe you are your own hero?
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War of Art. Solid book; picked it up after seeing this passage on HN hehe
I really disliked that book, I found nothing actionable in it. It is so often recommended that I read it to the end thinking there would be some jewel waiting for me. There wasn't.
I like this: "A person’s success in life is determined by having a high minimum, not a high maximum. If you can do something really well but there are other things at which you’re failing, the latter will hold you back. But if almost everything you do is up there, then you’ve got a good life."
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That's about the most depressing thing I've ever heard. So basically if I'm not great at everything I suck. I guess Knuth must be amazing in bed, can play every instrument known, solve top problems in quantum mechanics, compete in all olympic events, etc or he's not having a good life.
Based on similar things he's said in many previous interviews, I think you should read "success in life" as "happiness in life", etc: read the quote as something like: A person’s happiness in life is determined by having a high minimum, not a high maximum. If you enjoy something a lot but there are other things which make you miserable, the latter will hold you back. But if almost everything is enjoyable (or at least…
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I have a folder named "proofs" on my machine which is just this. About 1500 and counting little programs that demonstrate or prove that something works some way or another. The class name expresses the proven fact. When I find out I am wrong, I change the name of the class to reflect the correct understanding. I read through the names in my IDE when I need to know some detail about something I've forgotten.
Could you give some examples? This sounds really interesting.
ArraysOfConcreteParameterizedTypesAreDisallowed
The body of this class is a proof of this fact.
A thing I never knew before: Donald Knuth, the paragon of scholarship and of a life well spent, not only cleans his own toilets but bought a specific janitorial uniform to make the process more efficient. I find this inspiring enough that I am going to clean my toilet now.
I believe you misunderstood a very important point. The uniform isn't for "efficiency". For cleaning one toilet, changing in and out of uniform would ruin the efficiency of having a pocket for 409 spray. The uniform is for fun . "Jill and I got uniforms that have a slot where the 409 cleaner fits. You go over there and squirt and feel good cleaning the toilet!"