Remote-Url: https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/retd.html Retrieved-at: 2021-08-15 11:33:31.359798+00:00 I retired early because I realized that I would need at least 20 years of full-time work to completeThe Art of Computer Programming(TAOCP), which I have always viewed as the most important project of my life.Being a retired professor is a lot like being an ordinary professor, except that you don't have to write research proposals, administer grants, or sit in committee meetings. Also, you don't get paid.My full-time writing schedule means that I have to be pretty much a hermit. The only way to gain enough efficiency to completeThe Art of Computer Programmingis to operate in batch mode, concentrating intensively and uninterruptedly on one subject at a time, rather than swapping a number of topics in and out of my head. I'm unable to schedule appointments with visitors, travel to conferences or accept speaking engagements, or undertake any new responsibilities of any kind. I'm glad that the WWW makes it possible for me to respond to questions that I don't have to see or hear.I miss teaching and daily interaction with students, but I get stimulating feedback by giving regularpublic lecturesand speaking to informal Stanford seminars.I'm proud of the 28 students for whom I was a dissertation advisor (seevita); and I know that 28 is a perfect number. So I won't be advising any more students. But I do say that if somebody solves one of the open problems stated in one of myComputer Musings, within about two or three weeks of the time I stated it, I'll sign their thesis. (After two or three weeks, I'll be working on something else and won't have time to read their work.)I tend to spend about two hours per day in thelibrary, about a half hour in AEORC Rec Pool, and the rest of the time at home reading and writing, sometimes also sleeping and eating. I like to play piano andorganin the music room of my house, although lately I haven't had nearly as much time for music as I would like. If you're good at sightreading four-hands piano music, I have hundreds of pieces I'd like to try playing with you; pleasedrop me a noteand we can hopefully get together for a jam session. By the way, I'm also a big fan of theStanford Theatre.Of course I like to read nontechnical books, although I read very slowly. Here are some that I heartily recommend:Life A Users Manualby Georges Perec (perhaps the greatest 20th century novel) (see Willy Wauquaire's superb webpages about it)Gaudy Nightby Dorothy L Sayers (captures Oxford high-table small-talk wonderfully)An Instance of the Fingerpostby Iain Pears (also Oxford but in the 1660s)Death of a Salespersonby Robert Barnard (who is at his best in short stories like these)The Hajby Leon Uris (great to read on a trip to Israel)Marjorie Morningstarby Herman Wouk (in-depth characters plus a whole philosophy)On Food and Cookingby Harold McGee (applied biochemistry in the kitchen)Foodby Waverley Root (his magnum opus, a wonderful history of everything delicious)The Golden Gateby Vikram Seth (the Great California Novel, entirely in 14-line sonnets)The Age of Faithby Will Durant (volume 4 of his series, covers the years 325--1300)Efroniaby Stina Katchadourian (diaries and letters of a remarkable Armenian woman)The Man Who Knew Infinityby Robert Kanigel (biographies of Ramanujan and Hardy)Hackersby Steven Levy (incredibly well written tale of our times)The Abominable Manby Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (one of their brilliantly Swedish detective novels)Blasphemyby Douglas Preston (the best novel to deal with "science versus religion" that I've ever encountered)Blacklistby Sara Paretsky (a brilliant characterization of the tragic state of politics and class relations in America that also happens to be an action-packed murder mystery)The Travels of Ibn Battutahedited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (fascinating and eye-opening journal by a 14th-century Muslim scholar)Murder in the Museum of Manby Alfred Alcorn (delicious caricature of academic follies)America (The Book): Teacher's Edition“A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction” by Jon Stewart et al (has graffiti even better than the marginal notes inConcrete Mathematics)Feynmanby Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick (vivid, witty, hilarious, poignant: I laughed, I cried, I learned; demonstrates the unreasonable effectiveness of a graphic novel)Mountains Beyond Mountainsby Tracy Kidder (about how Paul Farmer's local and global life combines theory and practice)A Dual Autobiographyby Will and Ariel Durant (superbly written, a great story about how a man and woman can work creatively and sustainably together despite the mysteries of the human sex drive)The Hornet's Nestby Jimmy Carter (a revolutionary novel about the Revolutionary War at all levels)Lifeline Ruleby Doug Nufer (the rule: parity to vowel; an awesome conovowel opus)Don Knuth's home page