"Don't believe just because something is trendy that it's good. I think you get more prestige doing good science than popular science. If you go with what you really think is important then it's a higher chance that it really is important in the long run, and it's the long run that has the most benefit to the world." - Donald Knuth (2012)

Full interview on Web of Stories:
https://www.webofstories.com/play/donald.knuth/1

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Don't just believe that it's because something is trendy that it's good.

I probably go the other extreme where if I find too many people adopting a certain idea, I probably think it's wrong.

Or if my work had become too popular, I probably would think I had to change.

This is, of course, ridiculous, but I see the other side of it too often, where people will do something against their own gut instincts because they think the community wants them to do it that way.

So people will work on a certain subject even though they aren't terribly interested in it because they think that they'll get more prestige by working on it.

I think you get more prestige by doing good science than by doing popular science because if you go with what you really think is important, then it's a higher chance that it really is important in the long run.

And it's the long run which has the most benefit to the world.


Speaker 0: Don't just believe that it's because something is trendy that it's good. I probably go the other extreme where if I find too many people adopting a certain idea, I probably think it's wrong. Or if my work had become too popular, I probably would think I had to change. This is, of course, ridiculous, but I see the other side of it too often, where people will do something against their own gut instincts because they think the community wants them to do it that way. So people will work on a certain subject even though they aren't terribly interested in it because they think that they'll get more prestige by working on it.

I think you get more prestige by doing good science than by doing popular science because if you go with what you really think is important, then it's a higher chance that it really is important in the long run. And it's the long run which has the most benefit to the world.

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Donald Knuth: Do what you really think is important