Since September of 2025 I have sort of had the idea that I was going to read a data structures and algorithms book.
I knew that I did not want a book that simply told me what selection sort was and then moved on. I wanted some maths in it. I wanted to be like those engineers that I see on my screen that are breaking a problem down using maths and then writing solving it before translating it to code. That eliminated books like Grokking Algorithms and Wengrow's Common Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms.
I also knew that I wanted a single book that covered data structures and algorithms. That eliminated Morin's Open Data Structures and Levitin's algorithms book.
Goodrich et al. has a great algorithm text but the frontloading of the programming language just felt a little too much and boring. So even though it was nice I stopped. Same for Sedgewick.
I started Skiena and just got lost. Like being thrown into an F1 car and the car starts going at 200kph and you have to bring under control. So I jumped out of the book.
Then I took a 2 weeks break.
In that period I came to the realization that I was simply just scared of CLRS. It was all I wanted and I was scared of it because of the maths in it. It is slower paced. Deep maths. Deep problems. I would come out stronger but I would spend a lot of time in it.
I am turning 20. All I've got in this world is time.
So I took the TOC of CLRS and the TOC of Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science by Cliff Stein (the S in CLRS) to Claude Sonnet, set it to high thinking and told it to give me a curriculum where DMCS fills the gaps in CLRS.
It did.
And with that I am going into CLRS. Ready to spend time and come out stronger.