历史与人物nytimes.com
硅谷的尤达
The Yoda of Silicon Valley
2018 — 2020，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
《纽约时报》2018 年对高德纳（Donald Knuth）的长篇人物特写，他是《计算机程序设计艺术》的作者、算法分析与排版系统 TeX 的缔造者，被誉为“硅谷的尤达大师”。文章讲述他数十年如一日深居简出、专注写作与研究的治学方式。
为什么经久不衰：高德纳是计算机科学的活传奇，这篇特写兼具深度与可读性，无论何时读都能让人重新思考专注、深度工作与治学之道。
HN 评论精选
高德纳为深度专注而刻意远离电子邮件，体现其治学哲学
我最喜欢的高德纳名言：“电子邮件对那些以掌握最新动态为职责的人来说很美妙，但不适合我；我的职责是沉到事物的底部。我的工作需要长时间的学习和不间断的专注。我试图彻底掌握计算机科学的某些领域，然后把这些知识消化成没有时间做这种研究的人也能理解的形式。”
maxtollenaar查看英文原文
My favorite Knuth quote: "Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study." source: https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html
早年稀缺机时的训练让高德纳练就一次写对的功力
我最喜欢的高德纳故事，出自 Alan Kay：上世纪 60 年代末斯坦福 AI 项目时，湾区研究团队每年感恩节举办编程竞赛，奖品是火鸡。高德纳参赛那年，用最差的远程批处理系统，同时拿下最快写出程序和最快执行算法两项第一，碾压所有人。问他怎么做到的，他说：“我学编程那会儿，一天能摸到机器五分钟就不错了。程序必须一次写对，所以人们像刻石头一样学编程。”
pjmorris查看英文原文
My favorite Knuth story, attributed to Alan Kay (if you're around, would love confirmation): When I was at Stanford with the AI project [in the late 1960s] one of the things we used to do every Thanksgiving is have a computer programming contest with people on research projects in the Bay area. The prize I think was a turkey. [John] McCarthy used to make up the problems. The one year that Knuth entered this, he won both the fastest time getting the program running and he also won the fastest execution of the algorithm. He did it on the worst system with remote batch called the Wilbur system. And he basically beat the shit out of everyone. And they asked him, "How could you possibly do this?" And he answered, "When I learned to program, you were lucky if you got five minutes with the machine a day. If you wanted to get the program going, it just had to be written right. So people just learned to program like it was carving stone. You sort of have to sidle up to it. That's how I learned to program." [0] http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Knuth/index.shtml
高德纳的直率与乔布斯的形象形成有趣反差
一则关于乔布斯的轶事：高德纳来访时，乔布斯从椅子上跳起来迎上去握手：“很高兴见到您，Knuth 教授，我读过您所有的书。”高德纳回答：“你放屁。”（乔布斯以不读书闻名）
pmoriarty查看英文原文
The following anecdote about Steve Jobs is from [1]: I was sitting in Steve's office when Lynn Takahashi,. Steve's assistant, announced Knuth's arrival. Steve bounced out of his chair, bounded over to the door and extended a welcoming hand. "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. [1] - http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Close_Encounters_of_the_Steve_Kind.txt
高德纳虽是传奇却依然平易近人、乐于指导学生
我最欣赏这位老人的一点是，这么多年过去他依然平易近人。有次深夜，我朋友们在斯坦福 Gates 楼地下室做 CS107 堆分配器项目，高德纳路过看到他们在白板上画图，问“那是什么？”听说项目后说：“哦，堆分配器我还懂一点，让我来指点你们吧。”
__sy__查看英文原文
One the aspect I like the most about this man is how approachable and down to earth he still is after all these years. I'll give one example. Late on night, my friends were in the basement of the Gates building at Stanford working on their CS107 Heap Allocator project. Lo and behold, Donald Knuth walks by and sees them drawing all sorts of things on the white board in the hallway. "What's that?" he asks, to which my friend responds about the heap allocator project. "Oh, I know a thing or two about heap allocators; let me guide you" :) edit: lo and behold!
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