One of the side projects I have to embark on is writing a companion to TAOCP that shows how to implement the algorithms in a functional language, probably Scheme or some subset of Common Lisp. The main complaint I have about TAOCP is Knuth's insistence on using assembly language to illustrate the algorithms -- otherwise, they give what is probably the most in-depth description of the motivation and analysis of algorithms I have seen (much more detailed than CLRS, though CLRS is more complete).
Also, it is worth pointing out that there is no "complete TAOCP" yet. It remains a work-in-progress; I am looking forward to Volume 4B (though I have yet to actually finish any of the current volumes).
This is exactly what I thought: Pretty much every great inventor or researcher has that one big problem, or one big question that drives them ... but I think it is a good point to say that one should not be too disappointed about not necessarily making rapid progress on "the forever project" all the time. Thanks for making me feel a bit better about seemingly (and for the duration of typing this actually) procrastinating from tackling the underlying challenges behind my PhD topic ;) ...
This is unfortunate; it would be nice if dissertations were the beginning of a "forever" project, or perhaps the continuation of one. Sadly, most of the dissertations I have seen have been a bunch of quick projects stapled together with one overarching theme, with a minority being answers to big questions (like Craig Gentry's thesis on FHE). I can think of only one, in fact, that was the beginning of someone's "forever" project, and that is Darse Billing's dissertation on computer poker players (he seems to be spending year after year working on poker AI).
My experience in grad school has been this: we are discouraged from having "forever" projects, and encouraged to have "lots of little projects that you finish and forget about" dissertations.
I very much see dissertations as the beginning of forever projects; but maybe that's because my advisor's dissertation was†, and his own advisor (Ishii, cf my first post) saw it that way as well.
Which is what led me to quit my PhD (only leaving grad school with a measly master's :) )- I felt that I was too young and inexperienced to embark on such a journey. I fully intend on going back to grad school in a couple years' time, and treat my PhD as such then.
The Adams brothers, Dwarf Fortress: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of...
Elon Musk, Mars colony: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/elon-musk-mars-col...
Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/taocp.html
Hiroshi Ishii, Tangible Bits: http://web.media.mit.edu/~ishii/
(this is off the top of my head- I wish the list were longer, but it is late :) )