Knuth lost Conway's napkin on surreal numbers, then wrote a math novella in 6 days
snikolov · x · 2026-08-19
A legendary anecdote in computer science: Conway explained his surreal numbers to Knuth over lunch on a napkin — which Knuth then lost. During a sabbatical in Norway he decided to reconstruct the theory from memory, renting a hotel room (run by church volunteers, where his wife's secret visits made staff suspect an affair) to write undisturbed. In six days he finished a novella in which two characters discover surreal numbers, their discoveries and mistakes mirroring his own reconstruction, and rested on the seventh day.
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