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Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

Is it really fair to compare Zuckerberg to Knuth? Zuckerberg made a PHP site for people to stalk their classmates. Knuth wrote TeX, hundreds of papers, and a series of books considered among the 100 most important scientific works of the 20th century.

http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/100-or-so-boo...

Zuckerberg is definitely a successful dude that one can look up to. But in terms of advancing the field of computing, he hasn't done a whole lot yet.

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Your comment presupposes that advances in mathematics are more important than advances in social communication. Is Mozart less iconic because his achievements were in music?

Not sure why you're being downvoted. Somehow people have this picture of mathematics as this universal body of knowledge, but that couldn't be further from the truth. They are as earthly as anything else we've been doing as a human race. For an interesting perspective on mathematics from a cognitive-scientific point of view, check out George Lakoff's book "Where Mathematics Comes From."

> Gates, Zuckerberg, Larry and Sergey, Torvalds, RMS, Knuth

It's not too hard to imagine a world without facebook, but I'd find it very hard indeed to imagine a world without Microsoft, Google, Linux, Open Source or the Art of Computer Programming.

It's almost like this is one of those trick questions: "which name does not belong in this list". Zuckerberg pops out at me immediately.

All the rest is timeless, Facebook will one day be gone again, I'm fairly sure of that.

I have to disagree on this one. If there is one who does not belong in the list, it would be Knuth. Zuckerberg, as well as Gates, Larry and Sergey, has created a technology company that changed the lives of millions. They are all well known by the "civilians". Torvalds less so, but still, the Linux project has had a relevance that trascends beyond mere technology.

Mr. Knuth's contributions, on the other hand, are much more fundamental. But, because of this, his name remains unknown for the general population. For us, he is a titan amongst men; for the world, he'd be an old, retired professor who cannot even figure out email.

> Your comment presupposes that advances in mathematics are more important than advances in social communication.

I don't see that... he just said it wasn't a fair comparison. If it comes off like he thinks advancements in mathematics are more important that other advances, it might be because he does think so, but that's not exactly what he's saying.

I think it's more about how hard it is than how important. Facebook represents a lot of work but nothing that seems to demand superhuman insight; an army of Stanford CS grads supplied with pot and Red Bull could probably make a tolerable substitute in five or ten years. But it's far from certain any of them could ever produce the kind of work Turing or McCarthy brought us. (And I say this knowing I won't, either.)

I think an army of top end CS grads with caffeinated beverages is what Facebook currently employs.

> in terms of advancing the field of computing, he hasn't done a whole lot yet.

Theory, no. Practice, oh Hell yes. Facebook changed the game, for everyone. The "Social Revolution" has changed the face of business, investing, interpersonal communication, friendships, revolutions... the list goes on. Maybe Zuck was just in the right place at the right time, but he made the most of it and his company's impact has been enormous.

In terms of science, absolutely not. But impact, yes. Facebook changes everything. From now on, most people will be a part of an online social network. It's as important to human communication as the telephone was. Know how we use letters from the Civil War era to understand what that society was like? Imagine what will be possible in that regard in 100, 200 or 500 years.

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