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> 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 mate

> 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 learned churning out low quality academic papers in PhD study.

madisp 4y ago
probably the Lex Fridman podcast interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdBfsXbST8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdBfsXbST8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1R8FYUJm0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1R8FYUJm0 the second one is definitely where the last paragraph in the article is from. Weird that the interview is dated 2021-09-09 and the post is 2020-04-30?
- mjreacher 4y ago
  He also did an interview for the Web of Stories project which is available on YouTube and has his thoughts on his life and various other curious topics. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzeNLngr1JqyQki3wdoGrCn https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzeNLngr1Jq...
- jjice 4y ago
  Wow, Lex has gotten some of the greats on his podcast. I should probably give it a go. The few episodes I've seen were more shallow than I was looking for as an engineer, but I assumed that was because he's helping bring these interviews and ideas to a wider audience.
  - Barrin92 4y ago
    if you're looking for more technical ones the two interviews he did with Crhis Lattner on compilers are great. Francois Chollet and Schmidhuber and other ML related interviews were good also. But he does seem to be doing less and less of the scientific interviews which is a little bit of a shame given the unique access he seems to have.
  - bitexploder 4y ago
    Lex and Joscha Bach episodes were fascinating to me as well.
  - vicda 4y ago
    They sometimes go deep, but that is more at the discretion of the interviewee than Lex. Lex is usually asking questions about topics he has only tangencial knowledge in but is the expertise of the interviewee. The Chris Lattner episodes are great, and James Gosling had some fun stories in there, and Kernighan had a good interview as well.
  - gregvab 4y ago
    And he always asks them the question "What is life?"
belter 4y ago
Donald Knuth interviews are so interesting, but would like to particularly highlight this little piece of advice, out of this great playlist: "Donald Knuth - My advice to young people": https://youtu.be/75Ju0eM5T2c https://youtu.be/75Ju0eM5T2c Complete Playlist - "Donald Knuth (Computer scientist)" [97 videos]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzeNLngr1JqyQki3wdoGrCn https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzeNLngr1Jq... Also the "Oral History of Donald Knuth" from the Computer History Museum is great. "Oral History of Donald Knuth Part 1": https://youtu.be/Wp7GAKLSGnI https://youtu.be/Wp7GAKLSGnI "Oral History of Donald Knuth Part 2": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqPPll3uDa0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqPPll3uDa0 Plus.. "Donald Knuth Interview 2006": https://github.com/kragen/knuth-interview-2006 https://github.com/kragen/knuth-interview-2006 "An Interview with Donald Knuth": https://www.ntg.nl/maps/16/14.pdf https://www.ntg.nl/maps/16/14.pdf "Interview with Donald Knuth": https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856 https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856 This somewhat "colourful" page also tracks a few: http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Knuth/donald_knuth_interviews.shtml http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Knuth/donald_knuth_interv... PS: The story that he told Steve Jobs he was "Full of shit" is not true. "Donald Knuth never told Steve Jobs that he was full of shit" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2634635 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2634635
- copperx 4y ago
  There's one interview where he talks about a special sofa that he uses to read (and write, I believe), but I haven't been able to find it with all my Google-fu.
  - belter 4y ago
    Well he says he has his special black chair... "Donald Knuth: Writing Process": https://youtu.be/vG0D-kKTF1g https://youtu.be/vG0D-kKTF1g
maxerickson 4y ago
Ironically, a significant portion of Knuth's lifetime work consists of digested summaries of original source materials.
- mymythisisthis 4y ago
  Do you have quick summary of Knuth stating this? Just want to know, curious.
  - copperx 4y ago
    He has indeed said that, I can confirm that much. It should be easy to find in one in the interviews.
    - drekipus 4y ago
      Yes it should be easy to find in 50+ hours of video content.
    - bigcat12345678 4y ago
      In addition to the other post in this thread mention that it's time consuming to go through the list. Fundamentally, that work can be saved by the original author spend negligible amount of energy to provide the reference. When I see people hiding information, or forgot to provide links, I am thinking a bit of human intellectual energy is wasted for no good reason...
  - gkop 4y ago
    He doesn’t have to state this. Look at his work.
- sixstringtheory 4y ago
  The complaint is not the summarization, it is the lack of citation. I see no irony in this light.
  - maxerickson 4y ago

madisp 4y ago

probably the Lex Fridman podcast interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdBfsXbST8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdBfsXbST8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1R8FYUJm0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1R8FYUJm0 the second one is definitely where the last paragraph in the article is from. Weird that the interview is dated 2021-09-09 and the post is 2020-04-30?

mjreacher 4y ago
He also did an interview for the Web of Stories project which is available on YouTube and has his thoughts on his life and various other curious topics. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzeNLngr1JqyQki3wdoGrCn https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzeNLngr1Jq...
jjice 4y ago
Wow, Lex has gotten some of the greats on his podcast. I should probably give it a go. The few episodes I've seen were more shallow than I was looking for as an engineer, but I assumed that was because he's helping bring these interviews and ideas to a wider audience.
- Barrin92 4y ago
  if you're looking for more technical ones the two interviews he did with Crhis Lattner on compilers are great. Francois Chollet and Schmidhuber and other ML related interviews were good also. But he does seem to be doing less and less of the scientific interviews which is a little bit of a shame given the unique access he seems to have.
- bitexploder 4y ago
  Lex and Joscha Bach episodes were fascinating to me as well.
- vicda 4y ago
  They sometimes go deep, but that is more at the discretion of the interviewee than Lex. Lex is usually asking questions about topics he has only tangencial knowledge in but is the expertise of the interviewee. The Chris Lattner episodes are great, and James Gosling had some fun stories in there, and Kernighan had a good interview as well.
- gregvab 4y ago
  And he always asks them the question "What is life?"

belter 4y ago

Donald Knuth interviews are so interesting, but would like to particularly highlight this little piece of advice, out of this great playlist: "Donald Knuth - My advice to young people": https://youtu.be/75Ju0eM5T2c https://youtu.be/75Ju0eM5T2c Complete Playlist - "Donald Knuth (Computer scientist)" [97 videos]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzeNLngr1JqyQki3wdoGrCn https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzeNLngr1Jq... Also the "Oral History of Donald Knuth" from the Computer History Museum is great. "Oral History of Donald Knuth Part 1": https://youtu.be/Wp7GAKLSGnI https://youtu.be/Wp7GAKLSGnI "Oral History of Donald Knuth Part 2": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqPPll3uDa0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqPPll3uDa0 Plus.. "Donald Knuth Interview 2006": https://github.com/kragen/knuth-interview-2006 https://github.com/kragen/knuth-interview-2006 "An Interview with Donald Knuth": https://www.ntg.nl/maps/16/14.pdf https://www.ntg.nl/maps/16/14.pdf "Interview with Donald Knuth": https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856 https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856 This somewhat "colourful" page also tracks a few: http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Knuth/donald_knuth_interviews.shtml http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Knuth/donald_knuth_interv... PS: The story that he told Steve Jobs he was "Full of shit" is not true. "Donald Knuth never told Steve Jobs that he was full of shit" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2634635 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2634635

copperx 4y ago
There's one interview where he talks about a special sofa that he uses to read (and write, I believe), but I haven't been able to find it with all my Google-fu.
- belter 4y ago
  Well he says he has his special black chair... "Donald Knuth: Writing Process": https://youtu.be/vG0D-kKTF1g https://youtu.be/vG0D-kKTF1g

maxerickson 4y ago

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

mymythisisthis 4y ago
Do you have quick summary of Knuth stating this? Just want to know, curious.
- copperx 4y ago
  He has indeed said that, I can confirm that much. It should be easy to find in one in the interviews.
  - drekipus 4y ago
    Yes it should be easy to find in 50+ hours of video content.
  - bigcat12345678 4y ago
    In addition to the other post in this thread mention that it's time consuming to go through the list. Fundamentally, that work can be saved by the original author spend negligible amount of energy to provide the reference. When I see people hiding information, or forgot to provide links, I am thinking a bit of human intellectual energy is wasted for no good reason...
- gkop 4y ago
  He doesn’t have to state this. Look at his work.
sixstringtheory 4y ago
The complaint is not the summarization, it is the lack of citation. I see no irony in this light.
- maxerickson 4y ago