←back to thread

Hofstadter on Lisp (1983)

(gist.github.com)
372 points Eric_WVGG | 1 comments | 16 Oct 24 13:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source
Show context
analog31 ◴[16 Oct 24 22:11 UTC] No.41864347[source]▶
I read that article when it came out, as my parents subscribed to Scientific American. Even though I had learned BASIC and Pascal, the concepts in the article were just way over my head. Also, I had no access (that I was aware of at least) to a machine where I could try my hand at Lisp programming. Alas, I wish I had taken it more seriously.

At least Hofstadter was successful at getting me interested in math beyond high school.

replies(2): >>41867602 #>>41885203 #
1. TruffleLabs ◴[19 Oct 24 02:32 UTC] No.41885203[source]▶
I took M490 “Problem Seminar” (a math class) in 1995 with Dr. Hofstadter - we studied triangles, and the definition of a triangle’s center.

You would think that there is a limited set of “triangle centers” but he showed us (and he had us discover and draw them out using The Geometer's Sketchpad) dozens of ways to find triangle centers and he had notes on hundreds more definitions of triangle centers.

His approach to teaching was fun and made us want to take on challenging problems. :)