Thank you for provoking a vigorous debate on this subject. It's clear that many people disagree with you, which hopefully should not be a good reason for downvo

Thank you for provoking a vigorous debate on this subject. It's clear that many people disagree with you, which hopefully should not be a good reason for downvoting. I had mentioned two days ago at a meetup that I had been intending to make a serious attempt at Knuth in the near future, and the person to which I made that remark vociferously asserted the uselessness of Knuth for that very reason. I was completely unprepared to reply, and the discussion here is proving extremely useful. The overall tone of your comment was probably a mistake unless you were being deliberately provocative to take advantage of Cunningham's Law.