4 ms·

Is there some deep analogy that I'm missing, or is he just giving an example of how to analyze things?

• Stormbringer 16y ago
  I think the deeper analogy, if there is one, is that this is the difference between Computer Science and Computer Programming. Or perhaps that the govt will pay for any old shit: "My research was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant MCS-83-00984."
  • jcl 16y ago
    Or perhaps we should be asking: What are all the other NSF-funded scientists doing on their bathroom breaks? Knuth's output has clearly been accounted for.
  • apetresc 16y ago
    This paper was published in the American Mathematical Monthly, a journal which is mainly known for its expository articles, not necessarily for original research. For that purpose (exposition) this paper does its job admirably. Whether it's useful research is not really important in evaluating whether it was worthy of its funding.