5 ms·

Anecdotes from Donald Knuth and Robert Tarjan

100 points by furcyd 6y ago

qubex 6y ago
Allow me to recommend Algorithms To Live By (Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths, 2016).
- rootsudo 6y ago
  Great book.
- ImaCake 6y ago
  What advice have you implemented based on the book? I haven't read it but would love to hear what people have done based on it. I often think about this kind of thing when waiting in line or looking for a carpark. But I have never read anything formal on it outside of my current statistics training.
sabas123 6y ago
The full conversation can be seen here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5g4Zl8ppQA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5g4Zl8ppQA
suyash 6y ago
Both these links are broken on the article that is linked: "Chapter 22 of Selected Papers on Fun & Games. (See “Randomness in Music”.)"
- jhncls 6y ago
  You can download a gzipped postscript version at https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/papers/randomness.ps.gz https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/papers/randomness...
m00dy 6y ago
please don't
dang 6y ago
We changed the URL from https://feeds.feedblitz.com/cccblog https://feeds.feedblitz.com/cccblog. Please submit the original source—that's one of the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
flamboyant_ride 6y ago
Don't do math and drive kids!
srtjstjsj 6y ago
> Remember kids, don’t do math and drive. Don't drive and derive.
luord 6y ago
> He defined science as “what we understand well enough to explain to a computer” while “art is everything else.” That's perfect; will probably quote that if I find myself in such a discussion. Knuth is just a treasure trove of knowledge.
- abdullahkhalids 6y ago
  While I am a big fan of the algorithimization of physics, this viewpoint taken to the extreme is clearly incorrect. Feynman's very basic arguments around "why something happens" [1] should be sufficient to demonstrate the relativity of scientific knowledge. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GT2zI8lVA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GT2zI8lVA

100 points by furcyd 6y ago

qubex 6y ago

Allow me to recommend Algorithms To Live By (Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths, 2016).

rootsudo 6y ago
Great book.
ImaCake 6y ago
What advice have you implemented based on the book? I haven't read it but would love to hear what people have done based on it. I often think about this kind of thing when waiting in line or looking for a carpark. But I have never read anything formal on it outside of my current statistics training.

sabas123 6y ago

The full conversation can be seen here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5g4Zl8ppQA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5g4Zl8ppQA

suyash 6y ago

Both these links are broken on the article that is linked: "Chapter 22 of Selected Papers on Fun & Games. (See “Randomness in Music”.)"

jhncls 6y ago
You can download a gzipped postscript version at https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/papers/randomness.ps.gz https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/papers/randomness...

m00dy 6y ago

please don't

dang 6y ago

We changed the URL from https://feeds.feedblitz.com/cccblog https://feeds.feedblitz.com/cccblog. Please submit the original source—that's one of the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

flamboyant_ride 6y ago

Don't do math and drive kids!

srtjstjsj 6y ago

> Remember kids, don’t do math and drive. Don't drive and derive.

luord 6y ago

> He defined science as “what we understand well enough to explain to a computer” while “art is everything else.” That's perfect; will probably quote that if I find myself in such a discussion. Knuth is just a treasure trove of knowledge.

abdullahkhalids 6y ago
While I am a big fan of the algorithimization of physics, this viewpoint taken to the extreme is clearly incorrect. Feynman's very basic arguments around "why something happens" [1] should be sufficient to demonstrate the relativity of scientific knowledge. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GT2zI8lVA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GT2zI8lVA