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Comment by jjice | Hacker News Reader

There's something beautiful about his work on the series. He's been working on it for years, built TeX (not sure if that was for this series or other books of his), and has such ambitious plans. He's a serious legend in the field of computer science and we're lucky to have someone like him to have provided our industry with so much incredible knowledge. I'm interested to see how the series progresses for the next 30 years.

He also seems like the kind of guy you'd want to have a cup of coffee or tea with. Always seemed like a fun and sweet guy in the interviews I've seen with him.

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> I'm interested to see how the series progresses for the next 30 years.

Donald is 84. And each time I’m reminded of that I get sad, it’s very unlikely we’ll get another 30 years of his work.

He's already well over the avg life expectancy for American men. But hey, good genes exist and it's possible he's got another 20 lucid years.

The average age is from birth. What’s the expected age having lived to be 84?

People can live well into their 90’s. Hopefully he’s got another book in him. These people are still alive, for example:

Jimmy Carter: 98

Henry Kissinger: 99

Warren Buffet: 92

Charlie Munger: 98

Mel Brooks: 96

Alan Greenspan: 96

Noam Chomsky: 94 in December

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

~50% of 84-year-old men will die by age 90.

~0.4% of 84-year-old men will live another 20 years.

Unfortunately, for an American man at age 84 he would only be expected to live (on average) another 6.44 years. See:

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

I didn't want to say it out right as it felt kind of morbid, but I'm wondering how it will carry on after he passes. Not sure if there's someone he's asked to continue it after his passing or not, but I hope so.

It reminds me of that Hokusai quote (japanese painter):

“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75 I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At 100, I shall be a marvelous artist. At 110, everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.’”

Decades.

It looks like he started working on it in 1962.

Just imagine being that intelligent and pouring 60 years of your life into something like this.

Sounds blissful

I'd even say it sounds sacred.

The origins of TeX from Knuth himself:

https://youtu.be/9IM_dqjBkIw

His books were the reason he started TeX.

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