The Man Who Revolutionized Computer Science With Math

Read the written interview by Sheon Han in Quanta Magazine: www.quantamagazine.org/computing-expert-says-progr…

This dude also created LaTeX, a software that is commonly used to write mathematics. Impressive individual

"Coding is to Programming, what typing is to writing". I am amazed at such a simple description by Leslie Lamport.

I grew up scared of math, always excelled in other subjects but failed math. Now as an adult, because started learning programming and ML on my own I'm also studying math and i'm fascinated . Math is beautiful and makes things simpler, it took programming to make me see that.

I have two bachelors degrees. I first graduated college with a B.A. as a math major. I took one programming class while in that program and I realized that it's really similar to math. Simpler than math, if you ask me. I saw the correlation immediately. However, I didn't feel I knew enough about the coding side of things. To use the analogy in this video, I knew the math but I didn't know how to type! I felt like it was all right there at my fingertips though, I just had to learn the technical details. For four years after I got that math degree, I tried teaching myself how to code on sites like Udacity and Coursera, but I realized I was spinning my wheels. Doing the same Hello World over and over again in different languages. I needed to go back to school and have a planned out curriculum with resources and professors to guide me. So, after those four years I went back to college for 2 more years and got a second degree! This time a B.S. in computer science. Well, wouldn't you know it. I breezed through it. Like, the math background absolutely set me up for success here. I was a consistent C level student my whole life, but this time I'm was making president's and dean's lists and getting scholarships. I had found my niche! And if it wasn't for math I don't know if I would have ever figured it out. Had I gone the other way and just started with computer science, I'm not sure I would have had as much success or knew why I was doing it. Math called to me in my younger years, and it was just so applicable to the theory of computer science that my intuition for it was already developed. I just needed just a little push that's all. Personally, I see writing a program as like writing a math proof. You need to figure out which concepts go together and parameterize your problem. For me, writing pseudocode is where I can really draw on my math background. Without having to worry about syntax and missed semi colons, I can focus solely on the problem and really figure out what really needs to happen to implement something. When your pseudocode is rock solid, you barely even have to think when you're coding something up. Just go through your pseudocode line by line and figure out the syntax on stack overflow. If I didn't have that pseudo, then swapping between SO and my IDE would exhaust me so quickly. But with that pseudo, all the hard thinking is done. It's just a matter of typing it up at that point! Thanks for this video. It resonated with me. My favorite part was this part toward the end: 6:22

"I am proud that I "stumbled" on it" This statement itself says how humble he is.

im not clever enough to understand the problems this man solved, but am glad he did.

CS and computer are so young you can still talk to some of the founders of modern Computer Science. Also I got into computer science because doing arithmetic is hard for me.

First thing you learn when you start your Ph.D.... how to write LaTeX. That is when many a mathematician first hear of Leslie Lamport, myself included - and I was truly impressed by the versatility and depth, which made me look more into his work. A true legend.

No question about it, this guy is a genius. The idea of using a physics-based notion of time like that of relativity, and using that as a metaphor to guide his work in distributed systems and its notions of timing is a really powerful and original way of thinking.

Lamport's Turing award in 2013 was probably one of the most overdue Turing awards, glad to see his foundational work and the whole field better recognised with such an interview.

It’s refreshing to see someone this intelligent proud and satisfied of his work. It’s not humbling, but more an inspiration.

"Coding is to programming what typing is to writing" 👏

I feel like the most important thing he's said there is "coding is to programming what typing is to writing, if you learn to program by learning to code, you essentially only know how to type" This! this is something I always try to convey but never found the right words for it, I'll be using that analogy for sure! :D

This man did more for mankind than thousands of others did, yet he is still humble, but also wholesome and full of soul. Love it!

I'm SOOOO glad you guys made this interview! I read a lot of his work and he's my favorite mathematician / computer scientist! I'm about to take the software architect role of a quite complex system, and I'm seriously thinking of applying his ideas and tools in analyzing, specifying, and verifying our distributed system designs.

Thank you, Sir! I had two options to make my dissertation; one was a wordprocessing program being really popular in my grad school back then, and the other was Tex which professor Knuth had "proved." Your brilliant works made Tex easy to use as well as popular during my grad years. Ultimately, I decided "to compose" my dissertation with your LaTex in order to include perfect beauty not only in quality but also in appearance. That was the best work in my life as "a composer" of my dissertation; almost thirty years ago! I have not expressed thanks to you directly or indirectly for such a long period. Now I am happy to express that I appreciate it. Thanks again, Sir!

One of the markers of true genius is thinking in an interdisciplinary fashion, in my opinion. This man has demonstrated only in this short time that he has knowledge of art, mathematics, and physics. It's no surprise he contributed to our world in the way he has.

That analogy he made with the painter painting outside and finding problems to solve is genius.

When I saw the title I did not know it was about Leslie Lamport. I am surprised and happy to learn what he has achieved else than LaTeX, the greatest document processor I have worked with.