Kind: captions
Language: en
so what's your writing process like
what's your thinking and writing process
like everyday so what's your routine
even
I guy I guess it's actually the best
question because I spent seven days a
week doing it the most prepares to
answer it yeah but okay so the care I'm
sitting in is where I do that's where
the magic happens well reading and
writing though my nature is usually
sitting over there where I have other
books some reference book but but I I
found his chair which was designed by a
Swedish guy anyway it turns out this was
only chair I can really sit in for hours
and hours and not know that I'm in a
chair but then I have the stand-up desk
right next next to us and and so after I
write something with pencil and eraser I
get up and I type it and revise and
rewrite the kernel of the idea is first
put on paper yep that's where right and
I all right
maybe five programs a week of course
literate programming and these are
before I describe something in my book I
always program it to see how it's
working and I and I tried a lot so for
example I learned at the end of January
I learned of a breakthrough by for
Japanese people who had extended one of
the core of my methods in in a new
direction and so I I spent the next five
days writing a program to implement what
they did and then I you know but they
had only generalized part of what I had
done so then I had to see if I could
generalize more parts of it and then I
had to take their approach and I had to
I had to try it out on a couple of dozen
of the other problems I had already
worked out with it with my old methods
and so that took another couple of weeks
and then I would you know then I then I
started to see the light nice and
and I started writing the final draft
and and then I would you know type it up
involves some new mathematical questions
and so I wrote to my friends and who
might be good at solving those problems
and and they solve some of them so like
they put that in as exercises and and so
a month later I had absorbed one new
idea that I that I learned and you know
I'm glad I heard about it in time
otherwise my I wouldn't put my book out
before I heard about the idea on the
other hand this book was supposed to
come in at 300 pages and I'm up to 350
now that added 10 pages to the book but
if I learn about another one I probably
first gonna shoot me well so in the
process in that one month process are
some days harder than others are some
days harder than others well yeah my
work is fun but I also work hard and
every big job has parts that are a lot
more fun than others and so many days
I'll say why do I have to have such high
standards you know why couldn't I just
be sloppy and not try this out and you
know just just report the answer but I
but I know that people our economy to do
this and so okay so okay Donna grit my
teeth and do it and and and then the joy
comes out when I see that actually you
know I'm getting good results and and
and I get and I even more when I see
that somebody has actually read and
understood what I wrote and told me how
to make it even better I did want to
mention something about the about the
method so I got this tablet here where I
do the first you know the first writing
of concepts okay so so and what language
right so hey take a look at it but you
know here random say explain how to draw
such skewed pixel diagrams okay so I got
this paper
about 40 years ago when I was visiting
my sister in Canada and they make
tablets of paper with this nice large
size and just the right very small space
between lines oh yeah yeah particularly
we also just yeah you know I've got
these manuscripts going back to the 60s
and and and those are wouldn't get my
ideas on paper okay but I'm a good
typist in fact I went to type in school
when I was when I was in high school and
so I can type faster than I think so
then when I do the editing you know
stand up and type then I then I revise
this and it comes out a lot different
than what you know for style and rhythm
and things like that come out at the at
the typing state and you type in tack
and I typed in tack and can use can you
think in tech no so to a certain extent
I have I have only a small number of
idioms that I use like you know a
beginning or theorem I do something for
display equation I do something and so
on but but I I have to see it and in the
way that it's on particular here yeah
right for example touring wrote with the
other direction
you don't write macros you don't think
in macros particularly but when I need a
macro I'll go ahead and and these and do
it but but the thing is they I also
write to fit I mean I'll I'll change
something if I can if I can save a line
I've got you know it's like haiku I'll
figure out a way to rewrite the sentence
so that it'll look better on the page
and I shouldn't be wasting my time on
that but but I can't resist because I
know
it's only another 3% of the time or
something like that and it could also be
argued that that is what life is about
ah yes the in fact that's true like like
I worked in the garden one day a week
and that's that's kind of a description
of my life is getting rid of weeds you
know removing bugs for programs and so
you know a lot of writers talk about you
know basically suffering the writing
process is having you know it's
extremely difficult and I think of
programming especially the or technical
writing that you're doing can be like
that do you find yourself
methodologically how do you everyday sit
down to do the work is it a challenge
you you kind of say it's you know oh
yeah it's fun
but it'd be interesting to hear if there
are non fun parts that you really
struggle with yeah the fun comes with
when I'm able to put together ideas of
to two people who didn't know about each
other and and and so I might be the
first person that saw both of their
ideas and so then you know then I get to
make the synthesis and that gives me a
chance to be creative but the dredge
work is where I act I've got a trace
everything down to its root this leads
me into really interesting stuff i mean
like i learned about sanskrit nice and
again you know I try to give credit to
all the authors and so I write like so I
write to people who know the the people
that got this if they're dead right I
communicate this way I and I gotta get
the math right and I got a tack all my
programs try to find holes in them and I
rewrite the program's over after I get a
better idea
is there ever dead ends dead ends oh
yeah I throw stuff out yeah look one of
the things that I spent a lot of time
preparing a major example based on the
game of baseball and I know a lot of
people who own baseball is the most
important thing in the world you know
yeah but it's but I also know a lot of
people from cricket is the most
important in the world or suck or
something you know and and I realized
that if if I had a big sample I mean
it's gonna have a fold-out illustration
and everything I was saying well what
what am I really teaching about
algorithms here where I had this this is
this baseball example and if I was a
person who who knew only cricket
wouldn't think what would they think
about this and so I ripped the whole
thing out but I you know I had I had a
something that would really appeal to
people who grew up with baseball as has
a major theme in their life which is a
lot of people but but yeah so I said on
minority small minority I took out
bowling too
even a smaller my noise
[Laughter]
you