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Oral History of Donald Knuth Part 1

Computer History Museum · interview · Watch on YouTube

Tech pioneers & interviewsHistory of computing

What it is

A roughly three-hour Computer History Museum oral history interview of Donald Knuth by Edward Feigenbaum, recorded in 2007. Knuth covers his family, music, early programming, his thesis, The Art of Computer Programming, and the detour into TeX and METAFONT.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as a superb, personal long-form look at Knuth's life and work habits.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2022

What HN commenters said

  1. “It's a _really_ long interview, +7 hours. But it's also superb.”

    Long, superb interview revealing the human side of Knuth

    kontorStol, 2019-05 · Strong recommendation · in “I Got a Knuth Check for 0x$3.00”

  2. “Also the "Oral History of Donald Knuth" from the Computer History Museum is great.”

    Great Knuth oral history from Computer History Museum

    belter, 2022-05 · Recommendation · in “Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: knuth, oral history, tex, art of computer programming, computing history

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