Pete's Log: algorithmics
Entry #824, (Coding, Hacking, & CS stuff)(posted when I was 22 years old.)
I think I've made a realization, that, tho far from profound, is definitely interesting to me... I think my true area of interest in CS is algorithms. The problem is I am much less intelligent than people like Dr Chen, and thus I'm not well suited to the straight forward investigation of algorithms. I think I'm more of an applied algorithms sort of person. I love spending time trying to design the perfect data structure for my task, I love neat little hacks that increase performance. So I think I like operating systems because it's a really cool place to do applied algorithms. I dunno if that makes any sense, but it kinda affects what I want to focus on. I think I'm really gonna enjoy algorithms this semester. I think I could have done really well in undergrad algorithms if I'd simply gone to class. Algorithms this semester is really making sense so far, recurrence relations and such now almost make intuitive sense to me. And the math is becoming easy too. I think I need to rememorize some formulas and the math will be no problem at all. I'm also now more determined than ever to take the graduate algebra sequence. I also need to spend more time doing programming contest problems for fun...