With my area in near-quarantine, I was too busy rushing around, making sure family was ok.
Had a lot of patches of free time, in the middle of things though.
So I decided to read about algorithms.
I know I need a good base in the future, and knowing about the turtles that underlie my new world.
I decided to start small, and picked up Grokking Algorithms.
I loved it.
It taught me about the big low hanging basic problems that folks need to solve using computers and the patterns / recipes / algorithms we use to solve it.
Problems like how to sort stuff (selection sort, quicksort)
And how we can break down a big problem into a set of similar problems that get smaller and smaller and solving them all using a single solution from the inside of the problem onion, outwards, or from the smallest Matryoshka doll to the largest. (recursion)
And how lists function and how to find the most efficient way to get from point A to point B.
It covers a set of the basic algorithms in use today and has plenty of pointers to more efficient ways of how things are done in the real world and also where to find more advanced problems.
It’s engaging, teaches its points with stories and pictures and has exercises to ensure you are paying attention.
I loved it.
I loved it so much, I finished it in a day :)
If you are just beginning and you want an easy way to understand what all this computer stuff is made of, this is a very good book.