566K views · Jun 27, 2016 · 14:06 · 3 HN recommenders · 4 mentions · discussed 2016–2022
A Numberphile interview with Donald Knuth about how he came to write the first book on surreal numbers after a lunch with John Conway. He tells the story casually in about 14 minutes.
Why Hacker News points people here: Recommended as a short, charming introduction to surreal numbers and to how Knuth wrote his book in under a week.
“This interview is excellent”HN comment, 2021
“This interview is excellent”
Interview where Knuth describes writing the surreal numbers book in under a week.
Knuth has a nice book on Surreal numbers. link This interview is excellent this video He wrote the book in less than a week, the book was just flowing for days and after that he couldn't write a thing. Then he realized he missed a detail and had to rewrite the whole book.
“This may be more to your taste.”
Alternative gentler intro to surreal numbers for those put off by the book's style.
You can safely ignore it, the document is just a summary of Knuth's book. And it's a good one, I found it very helpful when I was working through the book. I found I had to read the material from several different sources to understand, in addition to working things out on paper/in code. I'm not religious myself but honestly that seems like a perfectly reasonable motivation. While there are some people who believe the Surreals could lead to a deeper form of analysis, I think the most common reason to learn them is to apprehend something beautiful without any sort of utility. But as a heads up, if that doesn't sit right with you, then Knuth's book is probably not right for you either; it's framed in the style of the old testament. On the first day, Conway created zero, and saw that it was good; things like that. This may be more to your taste. this video link link
“(15m video starring Don Knuth)”
A 15 minute introduction to surreal numbers starring Don Knuth.
You sounds like you'd enjoy learning about the Surreal Numbers. this video (15m video starring Don Knuth) link (1h15m video starring John Conway) It may be the case that you've already heard of the Surreal Numbers, but I remain confident you enjoyed learning about them. :)
“It was so nonchalant it was just thrown in as if he was describing the napkin with the theory on it”
Knuth casually tells the story of why he wrote the book in a hotel.
I love how a famous forefather ( turned 3:16 experimenter and muser on metaphysics, etc ) suddenly throws in how he wanted to role play cheating in a hotel during the course of research in Oslo, and that was his wife's expectation if he was going to squeeze composing another book into their marriage. It was so nonchalant it was just thrown in as if he was describing the napkin with the theory on it: this video "Because we liked to have an affair in the hotel room." "So that was the plan."
