Lance Fortnow on whether programming helps you understand computational complexity
fortnow · x · 2026-10-01
Complexity theorist Lance Fortnow answers a reader's question on whether a high schooler should explore the limits of computing via math/logic or via programming. His own path came from early-PC-era programming — slow machines forced optimization, and unsolvable-in-time problems gave him intuition for algorithms' power and computing's limits. Yet many colleagues entered purely from math and did fine. He notes times have changed: computers are far faster and AI can now hand you the best known algorithms, making the old bottleneck-driven path hard to replicate. No perfect answer, but his intuition came from hands-on coding.
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