Related tweet from Russ Cox: https://twitter.com/_rsc/status/1483899960684863493
> Knuth is making backwards incompatible changes to fix bugs in something he wrote 54 years ago (TAOCP volume 1, 1968)!
And mine:
Apart from the care Knuth takes, what's remarkable is that he has basically put out a permanent invitation to a DDoS on his time and attention—everyone in the world is invited to contact him about every word he has ever written—and somehow still continues to produce new material.
From Wilf's toast/roast of Knuth (https://www2.math.upenn.edu/~wilf/website/dek.pdf): “[…]your letter will be placed on a stack that already has 5,379 letters that reached him before yours did,[…] while he completes his latest additions to 47 new manuscripts and 311 revisions of already existing books.”
That is a fantastic and highly amusing speech, thank you for linking it.
On a personal level I feel the fastest way to feel unhappy is to worry too much about whether I am happy. Trying to design a goals or future state in pursuit of happiness feels like setting myself up for disappointment. All else being equal, having money is better than not having it, being engaged in some mentally challenging "work" is better than being bored, having good family and friend relationships is better than being isolated, but trying to optimize these things with some kind of master plan feels like it induces FOMO and general anxiety about the finite possibilities for one life.
I prefer to go with the flow, stay engaged in whatever I'm doing, and keep my eyes open for opportunities. I'm not sure if this makes me "happy", but I'm sure more content when I'm operating then when I try too hard to size up the big picture.
These are wise words that I needed to hear after a hard day and feeling like I've always been getting the short end of the stick lately. Thank you for writing them.