Lots of lessons for software engineers in this lovely interview. Like Knuth, Pierre Sprey seems to relish "beauty in the particular". "The goal of generalizati

Lots of lessons for software engineers in this lovely interview. Like Knuth, Pierre Sprey seems to relish "beauty in the particular". "The goal of generalization had become so fashionable that a generation of mathematicians had become unable to relish beauty in the particular, to enjoy the challenge of solving quantitative problems, or to appreciate the value of technique" - From the preface to Concrete Mathematics; Graham, Knuth and Patashnik