Donald Knuth: Programming, Algorithms, Hard Problems & the Game of Life | Lex Fridman Podcast

Donald Knuth is a computer scientist, Turing Award winner, father of algorithm analysis, author of The Art of Computer Programming, and creator of TeX. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Donald's Stanford Page: profiles.stanford.edu/donald-...
Donald's Books: amzn.to/3heyBsC
PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: lexfridman.com/podcast
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RSS: lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
Full episodes playlist: • Lex Fridman Podcast
Clips playlist: • Lex Fridman Podcast Clips
OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
0:48 - First programs
24:11 - Literate programming
27:20 - Beauty in programming
33:15 - OpenAI
42:26 - Optimization
48:31 - Consciousness
57:14 - Conway's game of life
1:10:01 - Stable marriage
1:13:21 - Richard Feynman
1:24:15 - Knuth-Morris-Pratt Algorithm
1:33:47 - Hardest problem
1:51:26 - Open source
1:56:39 - Favorite symbols
2:06:12 - Productivity
2:13:53 - Meaning of life
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[@lexfridman]

Here are the timestamps. Please check out our sponsors to support this podcast. 0:00 - Introduction & sponsor mentions: - Coinbase: coinbase.com/lex to get $5 in free Bitcoin - InsideTracker: insidetracker.com/lex and use code Lex25 to get 25% off - NetSuite: netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour - ExpressVPN: expressvpn.com/lexpod and use code LexPod to get 3 months free - BetterHelp: betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off 0:48 - First programs 24:11 - Literate programming 27:20 - Beauty in programming 33:15 - OpenAI 42:26 - Optimization 48:31 - Consciousness 57:14 - Conway's game of life 1:10:01 - Stable marriage 1:13:21 - Richard Feynman 1:24:15 - Knuth-Morris-Pratt Algorithm 1:33:47 - Hardest problem 1:51:26 - Open source 1:56:39 - Favorite symbols 2:06:12 - Productivity 2:13:53 - Meaning of life

[@MM-gd1be]

Thank you for the quality information I look forward to you as much as jre

[@janglestick]

very cool ... in most of those timestamp categories, there is in fact a quotable answer. great interview. Up with the algorithmythists ! how funny is it that Knuth uses globals? Dynamic programming is having a bit of a renaissance.

[@aaron8344]

Thank you for keeping an old man valuable. You challenged him like a child because you recognised that it is all we are to him. Based on this interview, I'd like to see you challenge more people at the end of their line. Good for your podcast - sure. Good for these people who changed the world - you made their day - remind them of their value and perhaps reinspire them. Really good job.

[@mpwilso]

Unfortunately comments that have given me the biggest laugh are ones where the coder admits they have no idea what they are doing. One person right in the middle of an attempt to implement an extended kalman filter began naming variables i_have_no_idea and fudge_factor. We instated peer review process immediately.

[@corineskipper1919]

@@MM-gd1be how Rogan is not a truther and NOT someone to b trusted for ANY information

[@Simon-jw1ww]

The first name you learn in computer science is "Alan Turing". The second one is Donald Knuth. It's sad that we can't hear/see Turing in your Podcast. But you are realy lucky to have the opportunity to speak to the one and only Donald Knuth! A man whose ideas are in every single modern computer on this planet! The definition of a legend!

[@lugas2267]

i mean we are lucky…

[@RobertTempleton64]

If you really learn computer science, the names "Charles Babbage" and "Ada Lovelace" might crop up. The real pioneers of computer science in a time when its actuality was virtually improbable.

[@NinjaofApathy]

Fun question: what historical person active within the last 150 years would you have visit the Lex podcast? (You can only pick one). Mine might be Tesla.

[@IntuitiveLeap]

@@NinjaofApathy Maybe the inventor of the Sumerian abacus? Whoever that is.

[@axiom1650]

@@NinjaofApathy Einstein

[@robinkaraa3369]

We need John Camack, please Lex make it happen :)

[@lashropa]

Oh great idea! It was such a treat to see him on Rogan, Lex's style would really scratch that technical itch, though. Lex, do it!

[@remixisthis]

Let’s go!!

[@apoage]

Wow thaw would be so awesome ..

[@TonyDiCroce]

And ask him about functional programming.... and Abrash.

[@cbennoes]

@@lashropa absolutely, that would be amazing

[@remixisthis]

Your doing an immeasurable service getting these rare long form interviews from programming legends. I really appreciate it and incredibly grateful we can all hear more from these hard to reach figures who usually don’t get to have in-depth conversations nowadays

[@sunte91]

I agree 100%

[@TonyDiCroce]

@Lex Fridman ▫️◽ you should find a podcast with a dumber audience than this one. Here, you run the risk that some hacker might choose to make an example out of you.

[@krabkrabkrab]

"You're"

[@sumtingcool1235]

Gimme your fav programming guest on the lex podcast… pls :)

[@dalimrabet3087]

Donald: "I am doing this at night when nobody else was around" Lex: "of course" This resonates on so many levels !

[@alexandreconlon8990]

The confidence with which Lex said that really got to me.

[@DaveWhoa]

I find 3am to be a beautiful hour to do some coding

[@flexairz]

And girls were introduced much later in Dons life...

[@GeronimOCZECH]

@@DaveWhoa Yes, becouse it's only you and your keyboard. In the daytime there is too many distractions imo.

[@jamesevans2507]

@@DaveWhoa I would probably do it too if I was privileged enough to not have to work 9-5

[@ozymet]

"I wrote program because it was fun to write programs" - For how many of us have been a real and pure joy to write something that just worked? Long before we became corporate programmers.

[@zomroxy2458]

I really love how Donald Knuth just genuinaly loves coding, it's vividness gives me motivation.

[@adels1388]

I love he is actually calculating 3^5 in the interview.

[@fosres]

Hello Lex. I honestly appreciate the time and effort you put into convincing Donald Knuth to speak on your show. Keep up the awesome conversations!

[@jonathanpopham5483]

someone asked Jimi Hendrix what it felt like to be the greatest programmer alive, he said "I don't know, ask Donald Knuth"

[@miketag4499]

Acid is the root of all evil

[@utubez0red]

We are so lucky to be in the privileged position to listen to scientists of this magnitude talking in such a humbling way about subjects like consciousness. Thank you Lex for the value you add in this world.

[@keepme5225]

Access to Don Knuth’s time is by far one of Lex’s most valuable leverages

[@3227998]

A living legend - Donald Knuth. They should have computer scientists appreciation course at schools and include Mr. Knuth to that course.

[@AminKhalek]

“When I met John Conway, you were minus twenty years old.” 😂

[@video-request-response]

That was amazing!!!!

[@JameyKirby]

I got Dr. Knuth's volume III when I was a teenager. I learned SO MUCH from Dr. Knuth books. I remember implementing soundexing in BASIC circa 1985 based on his book. Thank you for doing this second interview.

[@arawproductions3156]

so glad you keep getting CS goats on the pod

[@tdbulvan2177]

“I had more bugs in it than number of lines of code” - so freaking awesome of a statement

[@programmer1379]

So awesome !! Enjoyed the chapter about the hardest problem; watching professor Knuth describe the research process and how he managed to finally crack the problem is amazing. Many lessons to learn from this podcast. Thank you for sharing, Lex !

[@ken888wong]

I spent too many hours fixing latex bugs on my papers. Thank you Lex for doing these interviews of these pillars of computer science. It is interesting to hear the human side rather than the theorems and/or products of their work. Please do an interview the Dr Stephen Cook; he's getting up there in age.

[@rvdheij]

Thank you for doing these interviews. It's a true pleasure to hear Don Knuth and others you interviewed.

[@ronj9448]

Amazed to see a current interview with Knuth. I was introduced to his work in college where I needed better quality algorthms to get a better grade (early 1980s). I went to the library and every book seemed to reference Knuth so I decided to look for the source. Wow. Changed my life in a few ways both education and personal.

[@ninadesianti9587]

Thank you for the great interview, Lex! Thank you for introducing me to another great guest! Your podcast made me want to learn more about the work of Stephen Wolfram, Joscha Bach, and now Donald Knuth! Listening to them and other great thinkers scares me, it’s FOMO, fear of missing out. But it’s all good, at least it’s not boring, more stuff to learn!

[@karu6111]

surprised that there's not more views, this man is a legend, well, at least based on how many recommends his books on the concepts regarding computer science.

[@FacesintheStone]

Wonderful guest! It’s so great to learn about how it was in the old IBM days compared to controls and automation today. Keep bringing these epic guests Lex my man!

[@anitsh]

Thank you @Lex Fridman for this! It's an honor to hear Donald. Like many of us in this profession, I am thankful to his contributions.

[@peterfireflylund]

Knuth, the homeboy of all of us! I never really liked attribute grammar but thank you, thank you for teaching me about shift-xor random number generators!

[@justinjoseph5582]

First Edit: I normally never comment on KZbin videos, but just a guy from africa with the entire collection of the art of computer programming, already love this podcast and I am in a few minutes

[@hyperreal]

The visuals for this really help, thank you.

[@palefire4454]

GOD BLESS YOU, LEX, THANK YOU FOR BRINGING US KNUTH, WHAT A LEGEND!!!

[@SincerelyBradley]

Someone I absolutely look up to. A mentor of mine when I got my first software job gave me his book "Stuff Computer Scientists Rarely Talk About" and I've been inspired by him ever since.

[@dadecountyboos]

round two thank you, as always for this work you do. Reading MMIX for the Millennium & supplementary text last few months. Knuth is truly incredible

[@seer5994]

Thank you for the interview !! Please do more interviews with Mr. Knuth!

[@damislav]

the fact that we are alive in the same time as him, is amazing

[@STARBOY-ko4kb]

I lived everytime when i watch these podcasts.

[@fredb2022]

Wow! Thank you to our host and guest. This is not my field and I was afraid I had aimed too high. Only midway through did I “connect.” Glad I stuck it out.

[@Sliverth]

Excellent interview and a guest who’s a giant in the field. I’m forwarding this to my grandson, a high school senior and headed to STEM.

[@EricHrahsel]

I have a stutter. And this feels so motivating and Donald is so brave to attend this talk

[@Yolo_Swagins]

Lex love your podcast. Thank you.

[@2894031]

This is totally f-ing amazing, chatting with such a legend! This is the best channel on YT

[@TheGunmanChannel]

Very interesting stuff.

[@6pat]

Enjoyed very much this episode, best health to Mr Knuth.

[@FilipiVianna]

Really really wonderful conversation... It took me hours to watch because I was googling for references, like On Intelligence and Surreal Numbers... Donald Knuth has such a charismatic personality that I had the pleasure to chat during some International Free Software Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil... Congratulations, Lex Fridman, well-conducted interview.

[@bruhbigchungus]

Don is such a legend, glad he's still with us

[@venkateswarans1012]

20:03 Donald : I was pretty much a machine. Lex : yeah I got you

[@SeekHunt1334]

Thank you. Make the next one with Dr. Knuth longer?

[@gr8xpect8ion]

Amazing interview, Lex does such a great job with these legendary figures. These interviews are part of the historical record for this inflection point in human history. Historians of the future thank you Lex!

[@ir3mix3d]

So cool to hear a pioneer show us his perception of the timeline!

[@minasithilindustries]

The beauty in programming part is appreciated 👍🏼

[@vgoj]

Donald was visibly emotionally touched by the memories of Conway`s. Beautiful minds.

[@Nataspin900]

Can you interview linus torvalds?

[@solderbuff]

35:50 - First, programmers like Knuth were really mathematicians who solved a problem mathematically and then wrote a program. Then agile development came along and programmers started to ship something that seems to work until another bug report shows up. And now increasingly programmers don’t even know how the result is achieved (with deep learning and stuff).

[@jasonlind3065]

Agreed

[@AlvinYakitori060]

They do import, fit, predict and call themselves “Data Scientists” and don’t even know performance metrics, terrible…

[@nikhilk7493]

he is one of the kind

[@pariscatblue]

wow!!!! Lex, it was deeply touching, in many ways.. THANKS!

[@mrknowmyself]

I enjoyed this dialog so much. Was very thoughtful thank u!

[@measure5141]

Wouldn't know what to do without you Lex.

[@MrEloyina]

I am from a city in PERÚ, we dont have this type of amazing talks. Thank you for sharing.

[@miketag4499]

But you have peyote!?

[@consumer1843]

Dr. Knuth is a great teacher. Dr. Fridman is an accomplished conversationist.

[@mubiratan]

The master, Professor Donald Knuth!

[@stevenmimmesq.8465]

This has become my favorite podcast! Good work

[@ChuckSilva]

I so love these podcasts…❤️

[@courseprovider9871]

i still havent finished but still this is brilliant episode!

[@oguntigli882]

Great interview Lex, thanks so much.

[@reihanehiranmanesh9643]

You have done the interview I have long waited for OMG. Lemme watch this ;)

[@mpwilso]

He almost mentions Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. He must think philosophically for that to be on the tip of his tongue. Wonder when he last read it, one of my favorite books as it brings back memories of traveling on the back of my father's motorcycle and camping out.

[@stanuel]

Wow, fantastic conversation! I love how he's able to recall the exact first programs he wrote and how it played out. What a legend

[@rebeccaavendano9442]

Insightful conversation about consciousness!

[@gritmcnasty5592]

I’ve tried to listen to these podcasts to fall asleep, bad idea! I always find myself listening to the very end, I get so into to the topics even when I don’t know a thing about the topic at hand, the only podcast that does this to me! 😂

[@nabeelhasan6593]

"The word open source didn't exist at the time" :O This simple statement shows how much these people are important

[@robocop30301]

This is awesome! Thanks Lex

[@davidwalz3317]

“Life is a binary search..” me stops and think deeply about this for days. Haha

[@Channel-gv2gw]

please give me the timestamp

[@jacobbisher6291]

This would make a great T shirt. 2:10:44

[@supermario1982171]

This really stood out to me also

[@georgejaniec4995]

I literally come back to the algorithm itself ;)

[@luserdroog]

Please, please, keep working on TAOCP. Hoping to see the later volumes on parsing and compilers.

[@MrAcenit]

37:45 Phenomenal insight - literally the need for AI Ethics/Safetyl - When the code you write is impacting people's lives in a significant way, humans better understand what the computer's doing!

[@moneymarosx]

How many black suits does Lex have? Awesome content! Love your stuff Lex. Keep it up, thank you.

[@michaelschasteen2407]

dude awesome thank you both.... i'm realy at aweeeeeee

[@2189fallenangel]

Missed your podcasts 🥰😇

[@erpthompsonqueen9130]

Thank you. Honoring Parent. Brilliant.

[@PankajDoharey]

I am so happy to see him in good health.

[@swinehorde9118]

Hell yeah, Donald. A wellspring of knowledge!

[@janew2108]

How do you get these power house guests?! We’re so lucky! Thank you Mr. Knuth. 😀

[@go5582]

hi . i really enjoyed this video. host ,in 1:30:24 ,your guest has answered and reached his mathmatical threshold. very sincere. thanks for your time.

[@sm_xiii]

It is such a fanboy moment for me. I want to achieve that level of enthusiasm and confidence in my life, where the feeling that existing word processors are not capable enough will lead me to even think of creating something of my own.

[@rusi6219]

Stop optimizing your code and you're halfway there haha

[@marcgarridocasas9672]

6:38 I love the fact that Lex had to stop talking due to a smile, he really likes working hard instead of getting consistent sleep.

[@VikasVJois]

Excellent conversation

[@94franz]

What a legendary scientist so many PhDs were blessed with his name! talking about LaTeX, have you ever interviewed Leslie Lamport who is yet another CS genious

[@michaelschasteen2407]

incredible...Thank you gentlemen.........

[@metalstraw6700]

We need a Don podcast every year

[@warfreddy6968]

Hearing Donald talk about using old airgapped machines and soon upgrading to ssd is the most wholesome example i can imagine. Lol.

[@geez6666]

Jesus, thanks Lex! immediately liked this one before even listening to the interview(FYI: Just like Knuth books...hard stuff...lol)

[@timthompson468]

Thanks. That was excellent.

[@martinvannijnatten8134]

what en enjoyable episode ... thank you Lex Loved the Conway piece ... Lex, it'd be so nice if you could interview someone who was also close to Conway's later work on free will (Kochen?). Conway was a believer in free will. You've got all these people who believe free will is an illusion, but it'd be nice to get some guests from the other side;)

[@calebbarnes5452]

Lex is my role model

[@coincrazy3563]

Lex is a budding hero of new media

[@mohan1519]

"I'm on the side of understanding" - could not have said better. I only hope people listen to experts in the field.

[@mohan1519]

He's also such a wonderful human... like the way he spoke...

[@The_JS_Camper]

Went and watched the first video when this one released over a month ago. It took that long to go and learn about the different references discussed there. ...here we go again. 👍😂

[@TuffKaya]

Hi Lex, I think you could improve the sound mix quality of your podcast by removing the lower-end frequencies. The sub-bass and bass frequencies coming from the guest's mic make stuff on my desk vibrate, and I am using the just the built-in speakers on an iMac.

[@matthewlawrence2395]

The Lexbot is producing more content then the human Lex could.

[@kenjiedeguzman3990]

You should invite Naval or Chamath. Thanks Lex. Stay Safe and Healthy Man.

[@ShreyAroraev3]

even the legend was once a beginner. so inspiring.

[@fiifianyimadu6118]

The most respectful, appropriating part of the web is the learned side of it. I like this side with no sour grapes and thumb-downs, etc. I hope I am welcome

[@CristianConsonni]

Don Knuth: "The topic of stable marriages is a technical term" Lex: "Yes, it's a joke, Don" I am dying 😂😂😂

[@focusEngineered]

Lex YOU ARE AWESOME. I watched the first Episode +10 times, Thanks for hosting Don one more time. He is one of a kind scientist