So I think we all read that and think we want to be a bit more like Don Knuth, eh?
I've met Dr Knuth a couple of times. He's a lovely man, rather modest and just a little nervous. There are some in the industry I've met who know of their infamy and carry it less well.
Last time I spoke to Don, he was stood on a low/wide window ledge of Manchester (UK) Town Hall watching the Olympic flame make it's arrival there in the Spring of 2012.
We were both attending a conference held there in honour of Alan Turing's 100th birthday. Also in the room were Fred Brooks, Vint Cerf, Tony Hoare, Samuel Klein and various other amazing names from computer science and a few other names of note who aren't quite so "classic" yet (David Ferrucci of IBM Watson project, Gary Kasparov, etc.).
This is the first and last time I will ever name drop, and I swear I have no idea how I ended up in that room with that company. But it was pretty cool.
And Don did not fall out of the window, and I was relieved I did not witness same. That would have scarred me for life.
Anyway, he's got the right idea. We should all be more like Don.
