Hacker News Reader

Conventionally in print books, chapters start on the right page, not the left. Since the first page is a table of contents only spanning one page, the next page is intentionally left blank so the content can start on the right.

It's not really something that would have created any confusion at the time even if the convention has eroded with e-books and print-on-demand.

Like some slightly cryptically worded sentence as "this page intentionally left blank", you mean? You may be onto something! Quick, apply to IBM.

it is supposed to be blank, its that way on my physical copy

I think the OP is referring to the (technically self-contradictory) statement that IBM (and others) used to add to such pages -- "This page is intentionally left blank". Odd that it isn't used here given it is an IBM product.

Had a professor try to say in a serious voice that it was a paradox meant to stop AIs and robots from reading the rest of the manual. These days, I cannot say she was wrong.

Yes, exactly. Having read many IBM manuals from that era seeing a blank page without the "This page intentionally left blank." text is almost jarring in a way.