Donald Knuth manages to be brilliant, well-read and also just a nice person. Sort of refreshing given our field's tendency to let mean-spirited people off the hook if they happen to be good at what they do.
Even here on HN I've seen quite a bit of criticism of Donald Knuth alluding that somehow he's become irrelevant. Personally I appreciate Donald Knuth the scientist as well as Donald Knuth the person. Mean spirited people will get better at what they do but will probably miss the mark on becoming a great and humble person such as Donald Knuth. I'm really grateful that he's still among us and still working on his his books and that he shares his wisdom with us.
