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From Algorithm Design: Preface

"To mention a few representative examples here, we include fairly detailed discussions of applications from systems and networks (caching, switching, interdomain routing on the Internet), artificial intelligence (planning, game playing, Hopfield networks), computer vision (image segmentation), data mining (change-point detection, clustering), operations research (airline scheduling), and computational biology (sequence alignment, RNA secondary structure)."

Sounds like fun! I think they should start teaching this stuff earlier, elementary school. How can you learn to program without algorithms? You don't. It's all syntax and basic operations, like learning a language by memorization: disconnected from meaning. Yes, you need to learn syntax! Obviously. Algorithm design needs to be taught in equal measure. Otherwise we're just pushing the button because it makes the shiny lights blink.