Who reads Knuth?
by Josh Staiger
If I get one more email FROM THE DESK OF THE LOTTO CHANCELLOR I'm going to stick a fork in my eye and join Donald Knuth in signing off email altogether.
Hmm, Knuth... Knuth came up in conversation the other day!
Over IM I suggested to Bill we "knudge" a particular project in a particular direction.
"knudge? have you been excessively reading knuth?"
No... No, I haven't.
Which begs the question... Does anyone read Knuth? There's a consensus he's a great man, and I get warm fuzzies knowing he's a product of my alma mater. Yet, I personally can't think of anyone who's read his work.
I own volumes 1-3 of The Art of Computer Programming, and they look real impressive sitting on my bookshelf (just don't tell anyone they've never been opened). Same story for everyone I know.
I get the feeling Knuth's writings are becoming the "classical literature" of computer science - books everyone wants to have read, but nobody wants to read.
Then again, speaking as someone who's never read Knuth, I probably come off as a young, naive, arrogant bastard (as I do sometimes).
So I'm curious... I'd like to read Knuth. Have you read Knuth? What did you think? I could use some knudging.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Knuth," Steve said. "I've read all of your books."
"You're full of shit," Knuth responded.