I know, I've tried it, maybe one evening read a thing, another evening another. And I would probably be able to understand it if I wanted to.
But I can't possibly allocate so much time reading these (long and complicated) books, because, well, all these problems are solved and implemented by people smarter than myself.
They're in the libraries, codecs, standards or embedded in the programming languages.
Problems I'm trying to solve are further and further away from that deep abstract level - and more in the realms of social psychology, perception, etc.
Thanks to Knuth and others, I can move away from the abstract to the concrete, from the computer to the human mind, even if I couldn't possibly explain the fundamentals in such detail as he does.
But I can't possibly allocate so much time reading these (long and complicated) books, because, well, all these problems are solved and implemented by people smarter than myself.
They're in the libraries, codecs, standards or embedded in the programming languages.
Problems I'm trying to solve are further and further away from that deep abstract level - and more in the realms of social psychology, perception, etc. Thanks to Knuth and others, I can move away from the abstract to the concrete, from the computer to the human mind, even if I couldn't possibly explain the fundamentals in such detail as he does.