I · The foundations
Donald Knuth
1938–
Stanford emeritus · author of The Art of Computer Programming
Gave us
TAOCP (still being written). Big-O notation as we use it. TeX (the typesetting system). Literate programming. MMIX. Knuth-Morris-Pratt.
The story
Started TAOCP in 1962. Stopped using email in 1990 to "stay focused". Pays $2.56 ("hexadecimal dollar") for any error found in his books. Plays the organ.
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
One more thing
Stopped using email in 1990 to "stay focused". Pays $2.56 — a hexadecimal dollar — for any error found in his books.