Reaching another lifetime goal
My work on fixed-rtrt and
expr-trees, both rooted in exercises
from The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4A [1], resulted
in a letter from Donald E. Knuth. It contained a signed check for 0x$3.00
hexadollars, or USD 7.68 [2], and printouts of three of my emails,
made a few days after I sent them. They probably sat in a pile until Knuth
worked through them in June. The letter then took a few weeks to arrive from
San Francisco, California, reaching me on July 15. The black Freedom 250
cancellation mark on the envelope
[3] feels quite American.
Knuth had covered the printouts in handwritten notes about bugs in his programs, corrections to my mistaken references, extra facts about some of the counts, and $2.56 scribbles and check marks. Receiving it made me very happy, especially because I have been playing with Dudeney’s Digital Century puzzle [4, problem 94] since 2012. Around 2020, the “rediscovery” of how to enumerate the expressions generated by Knuth’s heavily constrained extension of Dudeney’s exercise [1, exercise 122(c)] brought intense vigour and inspiration, a restfulness that seemed to require no sleep. Still, the prize at the end is not nearly as amusing as the work on the exercises.
My balance at the Bank of San Serriffe is 0x$3.00, equivalent to USD 7.68 at
par. Among 1,044 accounts, 171 balances are larger, 37 are equal, and 836 are
smaller. My balance is therefore above 80.1% of the
balances in the bank [2].
If I occupied the same percentile in global personal wealth, my net worth
would be about USD 115,000 [5]. At par, that is 0x$af79.e0
hexadollars [2], probably enough to afford a house in
Bodoni, San Serriffe [6]. If the capital
proves too expensive, I may need to find more errata or settle for a cabin in
the quieter village of Kernynge.
Compared with my powerlifting goal, this one hits much closer. It is close enough that it may change what I want to do with the rest of my life.
