EWD is one of my intellectual heroes. His reasoning exemplifies the philosophical goal of making ideas both clear and distinct. His equational proof is a stando

EWD is one of my intellectual heroes. His reasoning exemplifies the philosophical goal of making ideas both clear and distinct. His equational proof is a standout example of the tools he used to do so. About a decade ago, over the course of a few months I skimmed through the archive of his notes[1] and at least perused the majority and dug deeper into the more tantalizing ones. I dare say that it was one of the most educational periods of my professional life. Also, I find his more acerbic observations amusing, but they’re mostly confined to non-technical notes and easily skipped. And who among us hasn’t shared frustration against this or that unfortunate fad in our field? [1] https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/transcriptions.htmlhttps://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/transcriptions.html https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/transcrip...