I read Knuth's book. It's charming. I didn't know this anecdote: In the early 1970s mathematician Donald Knuth spent a sabbatical with his wife in Norway. The

I read Knuth's book. It's charming. I didn't know this anecdote: In the early 1970s mathematician Donald Knuth spent a sabbatical with his wife in Norway. The time was meant to be spent relaxing. Yet one night he woke up his partner in a state of agitation. He urgently needed to write a book. Don’t worry, he reassured his spouse, it will only take a week. To concentrate on his writing, he reserved a hotel room just for himself in Oslo.