Absolutely, doing a deep dive into the material has been fascinating, you can see the approaches evolve as hardware got faster.
My math level isn't quite there for some of it but the problem had been studied hugely and there are some good 'field guide' level references out there.
Its made me consider going back into education to do maths though. I don't like that I don't grok everything and with practical applications I'm actually excited by the maths.
> Its made me consider going back into education to do maths though... I'm actually excited by the maths.
Warning: One of two things will probably happen if you go back to (grad) school for math. Either you'll lose enthusiasm in the first year or two because you really love building stuff and miss it, or else you'll find you really do love the math and spend the rest of your life at a blackboard :)
Flow shop scheduling, its a bunch of different approaches to optimising a seemingly simple problem (at first glance) that turns out to be np-hard at second glance.
The more I read the greater the complexity, I've never been much on the theory side and frankly as an enterprise programmer I've never really had to be, my distant A-level math has always been enough.
Its a practical application of some really beautiful approaches to a problem (everything from simple queue stuff through to genetic algorthithms and machine learning) I didn't know existed and at the same time a decent solution will have a really big impact on the business I work for.
It might take me quite a while to grasp even a small chunk though I'm starting from a pretty low level.
My math level isn't quite there for some of it but the problem had been studied hugely and there are some good 'field guide' level references out there.
Its made me consider going back into education to do maths though. I don't like that I don't grok everything and with practical applications I'm actually excited by the maths.