Donald Knuth: AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything...

It is much more rewarding to do more with less.

Donald Knuth

The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work.

Donald Knuth

essentials tools successful

The important thing, once you have enough to eat and a nice house, is what you can do for others, what you can contribute to the enterprise as a whole.

Donald Knuth

nice important house

The hardest thing is to go to sleep at night, when there are so many urgent things needing to be done. A huge gap exists between what we know is possible with today's machines and what we have so far been able to finish.

Donald Knuth

machines sleep night

A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God.

Donald Knuth

mathematics technology science

Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer; and if we don't fully understand something, it is an art to deal with it.

Donald Knuth

teach computer art

The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation.

Donald Knuth

software design kind

God is a challenge because there is no proof of his existence and therefore the search must continue.

Donald Knuth

proof existence challenges

These machines have no common sense; they have not yet learned to "think," and they do exactly as they are told, no more and no less. This fact is the hardest concept to grasp when one first tries to use a computer.

Donald Knuth

common-sense trying thinking

We should continually be striving to transform every art into a science: in the process, we advance the art.

Donald Knuth

strive process art

The most important thing in the kitchen is the waste paper basket and it needs to be centrally located.

Donald Knuth

kitchen important needs

When certain concepts of TeX are introduced informally, general rules will be stated; afterwards you will find that the rules aren't strictly true. In general, the later chapters contain more reliable information than the earlier ones do. The author feels that this technique of deliberate lying will actually make it easier for you to learn the ideas. Once you understand a simple but false rule, it will not be hard to supplement that rule with its exceptions.

Donald Knuth

learning simple lying

Always remember, however, that there’s usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head.

Donald Knuth

remember way firsts

Programming is legitimate and necessary academic endeavour.

Donald Knuth

programming endeavour academic

For his major contributions to the analysis of algorithms and the design of programming languages, and in particular for his contributions to the "art of computer programming" through his well-known books in a continuous series by this title.

Donald Knuth

design book art

In fact, my main conclusion after spending ten years of my life working on the TEX project is that software is hard. It's harder than anything else I've ever had to do.

Donald Knuth

projects facts years

It would be nice if we could design a virtual reality in Hyperbolic Space, and meet each other there.

Donald Knuth

nice science reality

I think people who write programs do have at least a glimmer of extra insight into the nature of God... because creating a program often means that you have to create a small universe

Donald Knuth

writing inspirational mean

A list is only as strong as its weakest link.

Donald Knuth

team-building strong teamwork

Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been prepared with the help of a computer.

Donald Knuth

may helping facts

AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything that requires 'thinking' but has failed to do most of what people and animals do 'without thinking'-that, somehow, is much harder.