As part of my plan to read more primary sources this year I’ve prioritized some reading that’s been on my list for a number of years, starting with the Turing lectures. That was an easy choice.

Choosing favorites is more challenging, since the lectures are all excellent. I’m partial to those that are more personal and idiosyncratic:

• Richard Hamming: “One man’s view of computer science”
• Edsger Dijkstra: “The humble programmer”
• Tony Hoare: “The emperor’s old clothes”
• Dennis Ritchie: “Reflections on software research”
• Niklaus Wirth: “From programming language design to computer construction”
• John Hopcroft: “Computer science: the emergence of a discipline”
• Ed Feigenbaum: “How the ‘what’ becomes the ‘how’”
• Jim Gray: “What next? A dozen information-technology research goals”
• Alan Kay: “First courses in computing should be child’s play”
• Chuck Thacker: “Improving the future by examining the past”
• Michael Stonebraker: “Postgres”