Knuth reenacts his first Stanford lecture: The Analysis of Algorithms [video] | Hacker News Reader

Knuth reenacts his first Stanford lecture: The Analysis of Algorithms [video]

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226 pointsdanso18 comments

Context for this is here:

http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/news.html

> My academic appointment at Stanford officially began in 1968 — another leap leap year! — but I was actually on a leave of absence, doing some national service at Princeton. Finally I arrived on campus in September of 1969, and began to teach about computer programming. I gave my inaugural colloquium lecture as a Professor of Computer Science on November 4, 1969, speaking about a newfangled concept that I'd decided to call “analysis of algorithms.” As part of Stanford's ClassX Project, plans are afoot to stage a re-enactment of that lecture and to capture the video before a live audience.

What does Knuth mean by "doing some national service at Princeton"? Working for IDA or something?

Quoth Wikipedia:

> Knuth left Caltech to accept employment with the Institute for Defense Analyses' Communications Research Division, then situated on the Princeton University campus, which was performing mathematical research in cryptography to support the National Security Agency. Knuth then left this position to join the Stanford University faculty.

In one video Knuth told that the he was about to publish(or published do not remember) a research paper on cryptography and the defense department asked to not publish. I think that might in the same period.

Every time I see video of him, I find myself preoccupied with trying to guess if he looks healthy enough to get through Vol 5 (current estimate 2025). It's such a monumental work it would be a shame if he didn't finish. I'm rooting for him.

He still looks good for someone that's 78 years old. If his estimates are correct he would be 96 when he finishes that work.

On a different note, Knuth amazes me in his religious belief. Its fascinating to see a mind which can write TAOCP and still believe in religious stuff. Absolutely Fascinating.

As a practicing Catholic and computer science major, TAOCP and his other book, "3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated", stand side-by-side on my bookshelf.

The former needs no introduction here, but the latter is a 268 page analysis of chapter 3 verse 16 of each book in the Bible. Definitely recommend it for anyone interested in the Bible and a fan of his other works.

btw the lecture part starts around 12:30 in video.

After watching this video, I felt like I want to be his student. Oh! he explained so much which I never knew before. Thanks for sharing.

Understanding how the brain works is very helpful as well.

What do you mean by that?

what is that on his head? is that even a toupee?

He says "believe it or not, I'm wearing a wig" ... the better to re-enact how he would have spoken in 1969 :-)

That is a truly hilarious rug. He has a good sense of humor. I went to one of his "Christmas Tree" lectures one year. This is a lecture in December, near Christmas, where he talks about "the most interesting thing I have learned about trees in the past year". I kept up for about 10 minutes but it got esoteric very fast.

Nice hat

Is there a transcript of this lecture?

It’s mostly diagrams and formulae on a chalkboard. I don’t think a plain-text transcript would be very useful, and a full-fidelity transcript would take too much work to produce.

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