The Man Who Revolutionized Computer Science With Math

Leslie Lamport revolutionized how computers talk to each other. The Turing Award-winning computer scientist pioneered the field of distributed systems, where multiple components on different networks coordinate to achieve a common objective. (Internet searches, cloud computing and artificial intelligence all involve orchestrating legions of powerful computing machines to work together.) In the early 1980s, Lamport also created LaTeX, a document preparation system that provides sophisticated ways to typeset complex formulas and format scientific documents. In 1989, Lamport invented Paxos, a “consensus algorithm” that allows multiple computers to execute complex tasks; without it, modern computing could not exist. He’s also brought more attention to a handful of problems, giving them distinctive names like the bakery algorithm and the Byzantine Generals Problem. Lamport’s work since the 1990s has focused on “formal verification,” the use of mathematical proofs to verify the correctness of software and hardware systems. Notably, he created a “specification language” called TLA+ (for Temporal Logic of Actions), which employs the precise language of mathematics to prevent bugs and avoid design flaws.
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#computerscience #math

[@QuantaScienceChannel]

Read the written interview by Sheon Han in Quanta Magazine: www.quantamagazine.org/computing-expert-says-programmers-need-more-math-20220517

[@masternobody1896]

finally i can cure cancer using cs

[@masternobody1896]

what a legend cs dude

[@farhanaf832]

I love ❤️ Boinc distributed computing software We can help scientists by using it or we can process data

[@Matlockization]

This guy will never go bald.

[@dlrowle]

@@masternobody1896 Q: What do you call a negative one sitting all alone in an empty room? "overnumerousness"

[@rypoelk997]

This dude also created LaTeX, a software that is commonly used to write mathematics. Impressive individual

[@neotsz3286]

He made it?! That's amazing!

[@JeffPitman]

Which are macros built on top of Donald Knuth's TeX.

[@rypoelk997]

@@JeffPitman yes. Certainly didn't mean to take credit away from Knuth's genius either

[@VCT3333]

i wrote my thesis and papers in LaTeX. didn't know it was just a side gig. 😮

[@srenkoch6127]

And even now 40 years later, there is still nothing better suited to write scientific papers, articles or books with. For those not knowing, it completely automatically handles cross references, citations (using bibtex), table of contents etc, letting you the author free to concentrate on the actual content and not on trivial things like if the figure caption ends on the same page as the figure itself of if you have to reference figure 4.3 or 4.4.....

[@yashmakwana8019]

"Coding is to Programming, what typing is to writing". I am amazed at such a simple description by Leslie Lamport.

[@user-yz7fr6kd7y]

I'd say coding is to programming what instrument playing is to musical composition.

[@luxemier]

@@user-yz7fr6kd7y thats not closer

[@webgpu]

coding also implies "typing and thinking" therefore his statement is partly false

[@JuhvellZane]

​@@user-yz7fr6kd7ythere u Go!!!! 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿 MUCH better Analogy 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

[@michalsvihla1403]

What's the relationship between typing and pressing keys on a keyboard then?

[@flavio4923]

I grew up scared of math, always excelled in other subjects but failed math. Now as an adult, because started learning programming and ML on my own I'm also studying math and i'm fascinated . Math is beautiful and makes things simpler, it took programming to make me see that.

[@davyroger3773]

I agree, once you have a reason to learn it and see it’s real world applications it becomes much more approachable. (I’d also argue that it mate be better to learn in your own we’re there’s no 3rd party affecting your subjective experience with the material ie a shitty professor etc) As to simplifying things , I like this quote by Von Neumann: “If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is. “

[@Yahweh5995]

That's my experience too . I was terrible at mathematics but I found out about Steve Jobs who made me get into computer programming. After that I fell in love with mathematics and became an A student in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry . I'm currently doing a BSc Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at university . I'm in love with it.

[@AbhikChakraborty1]

Lex Fridman once said that many of his friends didn't like maths, it took programming for them to get in to maths.

[@WillyKillya]

I don't understand in school why they vomit equations onto you without any context of what they are for, where they came from or why they are interesting

[@mkaberli]

I think part of your problem with math as a child might be due to your teachers' inability to "teach" math effectively.

[@SSJ0016]

I have two bachelors degrees. I first graduated college with a B.A. as a math major. I took one programming class while in that program and I realized that it's really similar to math. Simpler than math, if you ask me. I saw the correlation immediately. However, I didn't feel I knew enough about the coding side of things. To use the analogy in this video, I knew the math but I didn't know how to type! I felt like it was all right there at my fingertips though, I just had to learn the technical details. For four years after I got that math degree, I tried teaching myself how to code on sites like Udacity and Coursera, but I realized I was spinning my wheels. Doing the same Hello World over and over again in different languages. I needed to go back to school and have a planned out curriculum with resources and professors to guide me. So, after those four years I went back to college for 2 more years and got a second degree! This time a B.S. in computer science. Well, wouldn't you know it. I breezed through it. Like, the math background absolutely set me up for success here. I was a consistent C level student my whole life, but this time I'm was making president's and dean's lists and getting scholarships. I had found my niche! And if it wasn't for math I don't know if I would have ever figured it out. Had I gone the other way and just started with computer science, I'm not sure I would have had as much success or knew why I was doing it. Math called to me in my younger years, and it was just so applicable to the theory of computer science that my intuition for it was already developed. I just needed just a little push that's all. Personally, I see writing a program as like writing a math proof. You need to figure out which concepts go together and parameterize your problem. For me, writing pseudocode is where I can really draw on my math background. Without having to worry about syntax and missed semi colons, I can focus solely on the problem and really figure out what really needs to happen to implement something. When your pseudocode is rock solid, you barely even have to think when you're coding something up. Just go through your pseudocode line by line and figure out the syntax on stack overflow. If I didn't have that pseudo, then swapping between SO and my IDE would exhaust me so quickly. But with that pseudo, all the hard thinking is done. It's just a matter of typing it up at that point! Thanks for this video. It resonated with me. My favorite part was this part toward the end: 6:22

[@oyeyinkaojora]

Thanks for sharing this,I have a BS in Physics and looking forward to have a Masters in Computer Science and Cybersecurity

[@calicoesblue4703]

Nice😎👍

[@zgb3l]

I had the same discovery as you and now also studying CS

[@djredrover]

I actually read your whole reply and respect for putting in the work though! Without that, none of this would have even been possible. Respect to you mate.

[@Luluskuy]

Thx for sharing, your story resonates with me. Eventhough I am not in Math major, but Math Education major, your story still resonates with me.

[@saurabhmishra4467]

"I am proud that I "stumbled" on it" This statement itself says how humble he is.

[@ModestJoke]

I was really happy to hear him phrase it that way. No one invents math. It's all discovered.

[@nonconsensualopinion]

@@ModestJoke Well, maybe. The philosophy of that statement is debated extensively.

[@zackcarl7861]

@@ModestJoke that's true he is very simple and humb and that statement says it , maths is no invention it's a discovery

[@dlrowle]

Q: What do you call a negative one sitting all alone in an empty room? "overnumerousness"

[@dlrowle]

@@ModestJoke Q: What do you call a negative one sitting all alone in an empty room? "overnumerousness"

[@importantname]

im not clever enough to understand the problems this man solved, but am glad he did.

[@v3le]

i am glad too

[@theMuritz]

We are simple men, we see, we hear, we don’t understand, we like

[@joshurlay]

@@theMuritz Here here! Here's a like

[@dougaltolan3017]

That's because this pop video dosent state any of how his ideas are actually applied to computing. It's almost an exact analogy to the analogy he used in the video, about typing and writing.

[@eamonia]

Ha! Right there with you, buddy.

[@dhwang101]

CS and computer are so young you can still talk to some of the founders of modern Computer Science. Also I got into computer science because doing arithmetic is hard for me.

[@RealPi]

First thing you learn when you start your Ph.D.... how to write LaTeX. That is when many a mathematician first hear of Leslie Lamport, myself included - and I was truly impressed by the versatility and depth, which made me look more into his work. A true legend.

[@TheArtConnoisseur0007]

I got that during my Master's degree on Computer Science while writing my Thesis. His work is really really impressive.

[@droneborg19]

Is it difficult to learn LaTeX?

[@abdullahtrees5204]

@@droneborg19 kind of, it's not wysiwyg like Microsoft Word, but it's a lot more powerful and in theory you can do a lot more inside LaTeX After two years I was finally able to start writing assignments in LaTeX

[@michaelaristidou2605]

LateX sucks. MathType is better

[@astanakazakhstan3220]

@@michaelaristidou2605 latex is super fast to type once you memorize the syntax. you can't type in mathtype that fast because you have to press all the buttons, but maybe if you memorize all the keyboard shortcuts it can get quicker

[@SanjaySingh-oh7hv]

No question about it, this guy is a genius. The idea of using a physics-based notion of time like that of relativity, and using that as a metaphor to guide his work in distributed systems and its notions of timing is a really powerful and original way of thinking.

[@yugen3968]

I think it was an overkill of an inspiration, but yeah!

[@dinospumoni5611]

I don't even think it was a metaphor, he basically actually used the concepts of relativity.

[@jameshunt1822]

@@dinospumoni5611 Indians love to throw in words just to make sure their prose is perceived as something very sophisticated 👍

[@andreww.8262]

I thought it was just the hair

[@JorgetePanete]

its*

[@ElMahdiELMHAMDI]

Lamport's Turing award in 2013 was probably one of the most overdue Turing awards, glad to see his foundational work and the whole field better recognised with such an interview.

[@shaunhall960]

Absolutely!

[@dlrowle]

Q: What do you call a negative one sitting all alone in an empty room? "overnumerousness"

[@MrKen-wy5dk]

I bet that award, plus $10, will buy him a Starbuck's coffee.

[@mntalateyya]

@@MrKen-wy5dk The award had a $250,000 prize

[@johnhamirkarim3696]

@@MrKen-wy5dk he probably makes your life easier too

[@TheBrainn]

It’s refreshing to see someone this intelligent proud and satisfied of his work. It’s not humbling, but more an inspiration.

[@lucasboullosa]

"Coding is to programming what typing is to writing" 👏

[@lencumbow]

"If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking." -- Lamport "Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is". -- Guindon "Mathematics is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your writing is." -- Lamport “Formal mathematics is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your mathematics is.” -- Lamport

[@terrymiller111]

If you change "programming" to "software design", that is an integral part of my undergraduate thesis.

[@Shivdhundhandamru]

Yes

[@JonathanAdami]

I feel like the most important thing he's said there is "coding is to programming what typing is to writing, if you learn to program by learning to code, you essentially only know how to type" This! this is something I always try to convey but never found the right words for it, I'll be using that analogy for sure! :D

[@nietzchan]

Stack overflow helped us code!

[@absalomdraconis]

One of the old Unix or C books (though unfortunately I don't remember which) said something along the lines of "programming isn't a skill, but instead a way of thinking". Also said it takes around 5 years to pick up.

[@veridianr2490]

@@absalomdraconis 5 years lol, kids pick it up in weeks

[@AJ213Probably]

@@veridianr2490 programming isn't coding. Do you even know how to program? I was one of those kids you mention and 8 years later I still wouldn't say I have the thought process for it. It's hard as hell and has infinite depth.

[@shaunhall960]

Cool!

[@Djellowman]

This man did more for mankind than thousands of others did, yet he is still humble, but also wholesome and full of soul. Love it!

[@nathanoallen9235]

This man did more than thousands of others did, *because* he is humble, wholesome, and full of soul.

[@Djellowman]

@Bob Syerunkle i would say both statements are true

[@nathanoallen9235]

​@Bob Syerunkle Think what you want. Go out and do great things for the world through... bitterness I guess.

[@maxjeje8090]

@@nathanoallen9235 what he's saying is that humbleness, wholesomeness and being full of soul don't make you a genius, those are just good attributes

[@shaunhall960]

I've found that those who are gifted like this are humble as well. Kind too.

[@baganatube]

I'm SOOOO glad you guys made this interview! I read a lot of his work and he's my favorite mathematician / computer scientist! I'm about to take the software architect role of a quite complex system, and I'm seriously thinking of applying his ideas and tools in analyzing, specifying, and verifying our distributed system designs.

[@jakechung9295]

Thank you, Sir! I had two options to make my dissertation; one was a wordprocessing program being really popular in my grad school back then, and the other was Tex which professor Knuth had "proved." Your brilliant works made Tex easy to use as well as popular during my grad years. Ultimately, I decided "to compose" my dissertation with your LaTex in order to include perfect beauty not only in quality but also in appearance. That was the best work in my life as "a composer" of my dissertation; almost thirty years ago! I have not expressed thanks to you directly or indirectly for such a long period. Now I am happy to express that I appreciate it. Thanks again, Sir!

[@wido461]

One of the markers of true genius is thinking in an interdisciplinary fashion, in my opinion. This man has demonstrated only in this short time that he has knowledge of art, mathematics, and physics. It's no surprise he contributed to our world in the way he has.

[@dlrowle]

Q: What do you call a negative one sitting all alone in an empty room? "overnumerousness"

[@mitojopepa]

To see the whole in every detail..

[@josephmundell1551]

This is the point of education! We learn multiple disciplines and can relate them to each other. The world is more intertwined than we see on the surface.

[@macicoinc9363]

That analogy he made with the painter painting outside and finding problems to solve is genius.

[@lucid_]

The one that associates distributed systems and general relativity is also genius

[@forthehomies7043]

also the analogy coding is to programming as typing is to writing. Ive been programming for years and never even thought about it like that. Always knew i was building projects with code but it just narrows the scope down even more. Leslie was, and is, definitely a genius

[@shaunhall960]

He is genius and there is no doubt.

[@vivekkumarshresth4684]

Maybe you guys are genius that you've understood what kind of problem he solved 😥i am the only one special with zero brain.. Please make me understood what the old man did..☹️ i am curious too

[@jlinkels]

When I saw the title I did not know it was about Leslie Lamport. I am surprised and happy to learn what he has achieved else than LaTeX, the greatest document processor I have worked with.

[@celestialnubian]

This guy seems like the best teacher ever.

[@5_inchc594]

"I am really proud that I stumbled on it" The level of humbleness......

[@SAS_786]

It’s certainly a honour to hear about this amazing groundbreaking work, but I am even more astounded by his humbleness and honesty. Hats off to you Sir !

[@cursedswordsman]

He explains multiple groundbreaking discoveries here so succinctly!

[@khuranashyam]

People who know their stuff are humble and thankful that they stumbled upon a problem they could solve.

[@fuzzydark1395]

Best science summaries on the platform. Glad to have found this channel years ago

[@sumitmishra-cy4uz]

Talks about programming language and shows html

[@micuhh]

im genuinely so glad i found this channel. its got the best videos with comprehensive analyses of the topics they talk about which are completely factual and interesting to hear all the way through! even a 30 minute video feels like 5 minutes on this channel

[@jaydipnaskar]

You had not found, AI found perfect for you and also same thing for me....as far our interest. 😎

[@hoola_amigos]

@@jaydipnaskar it goes both ways son.

[@huskiehuskerson5300]

In a world of stupid things like streamers, this is a blessing

[@mattiasborg9829]

Or are you rather "proud that you stumbled upon it"?

[@soilstorm]

Sir, you stole my heart with the exitement and devotion with which you explained. Most teachers would say it in a harsh un- understandable way and ruthless. The world needs teachers like you.

[@secullenable]

Beautiful to see someone tat loves his work for the right reasons - the simple pleasure he gets from figuring things out.

[@izzzzz_5]

All this genuinely genius work and thinking to evolve how computers work, just so your social media can load faster. We need to make these achievements more appreciated by the public!

[@TriAngles3D]

Love his down to earth, low tech, higher reasoning perspective. Executing your ideas, "working" knowledge. That's what coding is for me. Noticing more often that many new IT people have no interest in IT. They expect to get a job and that's about it.

[@phatrickmoore]

I liked your comment from reading the first 2 lines, then expanded it open and 3rd line made me cringe a little. It's great that you are passionate about your field and celebrate its breadth, curious to learn about it, etc., but yeah, we shouldn't fault people for having jobs just for the sake of a job. People gotta eat and the industry pays.

[@skivvytv6229]

Cuhringgeee

[@wolfinthedepths]

unfortunately not everyone can afford to only get jobs they have an interest in, not everyone is in a good financial position

[@veridianr2490]

IT is a scam

[@TheTransitmtl]

@@veridianr2490 you can't just say such a statement without giving an explanation or some arguments. What even do you consider IT. Is it the whole of information technology? Is it just the hardware, the networking people, is it software, OS, is it web development? You say IT is a scam but you are using a computer to type a comment on a website or app.

[@abdelm4lek]

"If people are trying to learn programming by being taught how to code, well they're being taught writing by being taught how to type, which doesn't make much sense" But this makes much more sense !

[@zackcarl7861]

Ohh ya you know all the things that make sence

[@dlrowle]

Q: What do you call a negative one sitting all alone in an empty room? "overnumerousness"

[@dlrowle]

@@zackcarl7861 Q: What do you call a negative one sitting all alone in an empty room? "overnumerousness"

[@rrawat7952]

What does this mean

[@jeromearenas4857]

As long as it pays, no problem.

[@carsont1635]

This last semester I took a distributed systems class and implemented Lamport and vector clocks. And designed systems using a particular consistency model using them. Really awesome to see the legend that described these first!

[@tuams]

I found this channel with the year reviews but stayed for the well made content about topics I had no awareness of. Quality stuff!

[@lancerettberg2071]

Wow! Rare to see brilliance and humbleness in the same person. Can't think of a more practical, clear definition, via analogy, of coding vs. programming...and at about 5:20 his thoughts on working with industry to find and solve problems.

[@ivankaramasov]

Actually, most brilliant people are humble

[@hero9402]

Sauch is a humble guy, He says he "stumbled on it" that just shows how sweet of a person he is.

[@ramizr]

You're an absolute legend Mr. Lamport ! After watching this I asked one of my friend about Bakery Algorithm and you and ended up knowing a lot about you that includes distributed logical clock algorithm and many more . I'm surprised how I didn't know about you.

[@ABHAY-hu9kw]

Hey philonoist , i just watched ur channel and binged ur videos That was worth watching 🙂

[@ramizr]

@@ABHAY-hu9kw thankyou so much ! Those are very kind words tbh as I haven't really uploaded my latest works on KZbin but thankyou so much hehe

[@xvegitto]

You guys make the best science videos, please make some more. Thanks for the great channel team ❤️❤️

[@shivayshakti6575]

Coding is to programming what typing is to writing - Wonderful!

[@capri300]

that emotional moment at the end shows the depth of his passion and dedication to his art. remarkable individual!

[@axrmtech]

1:17 "Coding is to programming is what Typing is to writing" - Leslie Lamport

[@HannesFoulds]

Lamport has clearly accomplished what very few in the world can ever hope for, and he is a brilliant man. I have a challenge for you, though, think that analogy through a little and write a fictional job specification a company would post to hire such a person. Then go on LinkedIn or the like and find a job post looking to hire somebody like that, or even better, find somebody like that, and then tell me where they are in their career (assuming you find a person like that).

[@samiurkhan]

The title is a little strange (CS was born out of math from the getgo and the interview even mentions that Lamport was inspired by special relativity/physics) but great job bringing attention to a great researcher.

[@maskettaman1488]

You're entirely correct. Title was written by someone who has no idea what CS is. "You studied CS.. can you fix my printer?"

[@MichaelPohoreski]

Computer Science is a superset of Mathematics, Engineering, Philosophy, Linguistics, Psychology, Physics, and Art crossing both the physical and digital domain. It blends Art and Science together that few fields do.

[@nishanth6403]

@@MichaelPohoreski Cs is not anything close to a superset of Math or Philosophy or Art or any of those u mentioned. It is however an *intersection* of mathematics, the idea of engineering and other couple fields of interest.

[@justinkennedy3004]

@@nishanth6403 CS is a science, CS'ists are often artists.

[@alvin3832]

​@@MichaelPohoreski I would say the core of CS is a subset of pure mathematics. Though there are some subfields within CS that are more engineering based (e.g. networking, CPU architecture, OS, etc.)

[@Joseph-co7uh]

Full respect to Leslie Lamport for giving birth to the field distributed systems. That Turing Award is well deserved.

[@pawanchopra6679]

I haven't found a better way to differentiate between programming and coding the way this computer scientist has told in such a simple way.truely genius he is and so humble too.

[@danplt]

He is awesome. I once wrote an email to him asking what editor he uses for LaTex, he gently replied.

[@aadithyaasridharbaskari8448]

What editor does he use?

[@adarshmohapatra5058]

@@aadithyaasridharbaskari8448 He created LaTex

[@oscarprieto9013]

@@adarshmohapatra5058 That doesn't answer what LaTex editor does he use

[@danplt]

@@aadithyaasridharbaskari8448 GNU Emacs with his custom macros

[@ahmedbouali7000]

As a R&D Engineer in Distributed Systems, to give you a simple idea about how much this man contributed to this field : Without his Paxos algorithm to solve consensus, probably we would not have had blockchains.

[@stevefriedl3983]

Not 100% sure that would be a bad thing :-)

[@Acid31337]

If you really want to create something that is theoretically possible, and other people would like to use it, absence of ready to use algorithm won't stop you. There was attempts before Satoshi to create distributed ledger. 2008 crisis and ugly bailout sparkled this, and nothing really could stop it.

[@larslover6559]

@@stevefriedl3983 Agree. Crypto is a freaking clownshow

[@stevefriedl3983]

@@larslover6559 The math is fascinating, but the currency stuff is really just a way to turn your hard-earned money into somebody else's money.

[@cornoc]

@@stevefriedl3983 You could say the same thing any time you use your money to buy anything. Even when you're not using it, it's probably sitting in a bank account where it technically isn't yours until you ask to withdraw it.

[@MGJJ123]

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. This inspired me and pulled me out of the scholastic rut I’ve been in for the past 2 weeks.

[@lapatria100]

I thought it was neat how he uses metaphors to get his ideas and understandings across; shows he emphasizes them for learning in general

[@rabirajbanerjee3872]

The man behind Distributed Systems, our DS course professor used to worship him a lot

[@Quantum_in_Java]

Indians and their over obsession with god and worshipping ☹️☹️

[@AbdulKadir-xd8fl]

Sir you are genuis, Today i got the chance to finally see you. I have studied Lamport’s Clock during my Phd course work now i am using LateX you have us to write papers. I have no words .. you have contributed so much to cs field. Very well said: Without being good at mathematics you can’t call yourself programmer.

[@sumitjain3938]

I have always seen great personalities like him are always very humble and keep gratitude throughout their life. We can only learn from them.

[@kartikpodugu]

Not many can understand his happiness about being an engineer and computer scientist. He is enjoying what he is doing.

[@YouB3anz]

I studied this guy's algorithms recently in graduate school. Nice to see that the man remains relevant.

[@webgpu]

remains relevant ? what is his current work right now?

[@tonyzhu1687]

@@webgpu To answer your question, his work on distributed systems and synchronization is the standard for a rigorous undergraduate/ graduate level. The engineering aspect of how to adapt his multi paxos algorithm is hard and is the source of many different implementations that remains being worked on to this day.

[@JacintoVG]

In my last year of university I did a research paper on the comparison between the work of dines bjørner and tla+ by Leslie lamport. The work of these two men in specification language is astounding and unfortunately the only conclusion I was able to reach is that one semester isn’t enough time to really get deep enough into it.

[@TUMATATAN]

"Coding is to programming what typing is to writing". The light bulb that just went on in my empty head woke up the entire neighborhood. Who is this man that taught me so much in so little time?

[@metarus208]

Leslie Lamport, one of the greatest Computer Scientists of the 21st century.

[@AlbrechtJ]

This video is precious. Seven minutes to listen to this genius guy is priceless. Thanks for such good video.

[@Xsiondu]

The algorithm must be beautiful to those who understand it. He seemed to me nearly brought to tears by it's beauty when he described it.

[@shubhamchandra9258]

This is definitely epic. Never knew Leslie Lamport is a mathematician. Amazing.

[@goldengilmaky6788]

What a brilliant mind and yet so humble. The way math is taught at school is so flawed. Imagine having this guy as your teacher in early school.

[@bradleystephen3378]

What a bright and passionate person. Honestly inspirational

[@dylanparker130]

Great video - genuinely fascinating.

[@batlin]

They really need to add Lamport's work to more undergrad compsci curricula. Such a clever person.

[@surgeonofdeath8199]

wow man, uncle's thoughts about computer science and maths are truly fascinating.❤ good work man i mean most of teenagers like me don't like to hear some old man's words but i personally like this video a lot.

[@NearLWatson]

Appreciate the humility. And as an aspiring data scientist, i hope and I am endeavouring to 'stumble on to something' myself. Still struggling to walk straight. This video has helped me to persevere.

[@modallas8034]

I'm glad we have a guy like him out there figuring these complex things out.

[@landspide]

That moment at 7:23 is with such depth for him, pivotal, and why he loves what he does.

[@vsaihruthikreddy7127]

Being a computer science student by background I cannot understand a few of the things he talks about I mean the amount of knowledge he has about computers is just awesome this gen needs to learn from an individual like him

[@jagatdave]

He being proud on his work..is the sweetest reward of his work...

[@stt.9433]

Surprisingly humble, usually a sign of real genius.

[@Noname-jq8ec]

Math is the universal language, and it has always fascinated me how math works in a variety of ways. But as someone who struggles with math and has a very low level of understanding of mathematics it’s eaten me up. But I always enjoy these kinds of videos even though I don’t have any background in mathematics. :)

[@bentationfunkiloglio]

Haha. Had a friend in college back in late 1980s who was a comp sci major. I asked him once, what the hell he'd do with that major? Many years later, I ended up getting a Master's degree in comp sci.

[@apurvasurve3294]

his enthusiasm is contagious.

[@sohelalamrana]

What a great and humble mind, after discovering a groundbreaking algorithm the person says, "..I stumbled on it", truly great.

[@khalidh3091]

This guy is stating something very insightful, while studying computer science at the University I have been introduced to the Curry-Howard correspondance (look for it in Wikipedia) which states that basically a computer program is a proof of a mathematical theorem it can be formulated like this : In programming language theory and proof theory, the Curry-Howard correspondence (also known as the Curry-Howard isomorphism or equivalence, or the proofs-as-programs and propositions- or formulae-as-types interpretation) is the direct relationship between computer programs and mathematical proofs.

[@BobScheuren]

As a LaTeX nerd, I feel that this video missed one of the most important contributions of Leslie Lamport's career.

[@jamesfortune243]

The rendering of mathematics by TeX/LaTeX is considered the official representation by the American Mathematical Society.

[@ha2kiplt]

We are all grateful to you for your contribution

[@fernandoschuindt1665]

I know you! From "Who Builds a Skyscraper without Drawing Blueprints?" in 2014. I saved a quote you said, but now the paper is long gone. I knew you were going to be spotlighted some day. You rock.

[@don_marcel]

This video should be treasured. Programming is starting to look different with the advent of no-code infrastructure. I went to school for CS later in life and was completely astonished that there were 2nd year CS students who didn't know what a command prompt was. 90% of my class relied on snippets from GeeksForGeeks and Stack.

[@josesanchezpalacios8991]

I wish I had a teacher like him

[@karankotian]

Such a great mind and yet being so humble

[@lodgechant]

What a FABULOUS, inspiring documentary. Thank you. With greetings from Cape Town.

[@FrancescoVarrato]

An amazing, passionate interview. Thank you

[@VedantFalcon]

I love using TLA+ and I'm astounded by this man's contributions to CS. Thanks Quanta, I really enjoyed this video. One question, is he doing alright healthwise? He seemed to be breathing heavily :(

[@VideoTendency]

Dude is 81, I'd expect a little wear and tear (and hope to be half that sharp) when I hit that age. I get you, though. Losing John Conway to COVID at about the same age was a bummer, he was also by all accounts both brilliant and a great guy.

[@Meowww12760]

Respect for that person who's work helped humanity.. When Honesty , Talent and passion combines in your job...you can do wonders !

[@robertguzman3113]

Thank you> for description/thinking ideas.

[@lopyus]

Every other lecture in my distributed algorithms class has his name. Also, I didn't know causal ordering was inspired from special relativity

[@robertbeisert3315]

I stumbled on it long after his paper was written, because I had a problem and that was the intuitive solution. However, if it weren't for his research I wouldn't have had that problem to begin with - the systems just wouldn't have been advanced enough to make the solution intuitive.

[@magikworx3748]

Thank you, Mr Lamport. You're an absolute legend and I enjoy reading your papers.

[@bevvy.bee9]

When he kept talking about distributed systems, I couldn't help but think block chain. But to find out his last name is lamport now shows me how important this man is, the subunit of Sol, on the Solana block chain is a lamport. It's called a lamport to pay homage to this computer scientists.

[@magikworx3748]

@@bevvy.bee9 I remember Lamport first from the bakery algorithm and then his distributed logical clock algorithm. The man has found order in naturally chaotic systems and I can't help but admire it. It's great that they felt the same and could honor him in that way.

[@bevvy.bee9]

@@magikworx3748 order in natural chaotic systems??? That the hell, that sounds cool!!! I wanna check this out

[@magikworx3748]

@@bevvy.bee9 Distributed systems are chaos. Neither computer understands the other simply because a CPU core thread thinks it's the ruler of its domain and will always assume that and trash everyone else. There's always some agreed upon middle-ground that lets them sync and Lamport solved it for both internal to a single computer(Bakery), as well as huge thousand computer clusters(Paxos).

[@donaldviszneki8251]

Chandy-Lamport makes me smile. I had no idea it was inspired by relativity. Truly remarkable.

[@Nico_cl]

Thank you for this, to both Quanta and Leslie.

[@allangathecha.]

I remember doing an end of semester Distributed Systems project for implementing Lamport Logical Clocks in C++ during my third year in University. We all copied the code from the smartest student in class and passed.

[@pradbourne2446]

years of working on a problem and he says he stumbled on it. so profound

[@davidclark9086]

A well made and very informative video. Thanks for posting.

[@GurpreetSinghMadaan]

What a wonderful and humble person. Awe and respect.

[@bestcreations4703]

As a STEM tutor who is primarily a programmer but also loves all stem fields, the comment he made about coding to programming is the same as types is to writing is such a sad truth. Too often I have encountered individuals who can code but cannot program at all. I have had to teach them how to think, since teaching them how to code is as simple as teaching them how to Google. Learning how to program means learning how to approach a problem and ask yourself the right questions to find the solution in your mind. The rest is trivial.

[@afterthesmash]

In sophisticated languages, you commonly find cases where seemingly equivalent modes of coding can differ by 10× in time or space. If you think that coding a complex backtracking regex is "trivial" please stay far away from contributing to any program I might someday wish to use. Well, you say, you shouldn't use regexes in the first place, because they are notorious for these kinds of problems. Ever used Wikipedia? The markup language is defined by a patchwork skein of almost 200 different regexes. Tens of millions of coded articles you couldn't replace for less than a billion dollars. You can't implement an equivalent syntax any other way. Another aspect of coding that comes up all the time is copy elision. There are often extremely complex rules about when your compiler or runtime can avoid or eliminate making extra copies. Coding at a high level is not trivial.

[@hkudrimoti]

LL is the definition of genius. And humility .

[@KevinN44]

Amazing. A lot of amazing software runs on his ideas.

[@InsideInterpreting]

The thought he puts into each word is incredible.

[@rylaczero3740]

Upon hearing his last name, I remembered Lamport clock that I studied back in university. And here is the man himself.

[@SoCalFreelance]

Microsoft collects computer scientists the way others might collect fine wine.

[@faizs9676]

.....................One of THE BEST INTERVIEWS.........................