[00:00] It's 1956. A young programmer is taking his girlfriend shopping in Amsterdam without knowing that he would develop one of the most important algorithms in history. No one could
[00:15] possibly know that in just 20 minutes the world as we knew it would be transformed. That was the day when a soon-to-be a world-renowned Dutch programmer and mathematician
[00:28] Edgar W. Dijkstra came up with an algorithm that would power GPS navigation, network routing, social media networks, supply chains, robotics, and more. He literally changed the world in the
[00:43] time it takes us to drink a cup of coffee. Can you imagine that? Dijkstra was working as a programmer at the Mathematical Center in Amsterdam. The center was about to unveil
[00:56] a pioneering Dutch computer, the new Armac computer. He wanted to showcase the power of this computer by choosing a problem that would be challenging enough to surprise people,
[01:10] but general enough so that people who were not specialized in computing could still understand it. He chose the problem of finding the shortest path between two locations. He kept thinking about
[01:22] this during and after his work hours When Dykstra and his girlfriend felt tired from walking around the shops that day they sat down at a cafe terrace to drink a cup of coffee
[01:36] He kept thinking, he just kept thinking. How could he find the shortest way to travel from Rotterdam to Groningen? But then he realized the potential of making the question more general.
[01:50] Why not come up with a general solution that would find the shortest path between any two given cities? You might picture Dijkstra very focused on his cafe table,
[02:03] sketching and brainstorming in hundreds of pieces of paper to come up with the right solution. Interestingly, that's not how it happened. Dijkstra literally said that he didn't use pencil and paper.
[02:15] He designed it entirely in his head. At that time, Dijkstra didn't know that those 20 minutes would become the cornerstone of his fame, reshaping the world by unlocking capabilities that we didn't even know existed.
[02:32] This story proves how inspiration can come from the most unexpected moments, and how brilliant discoveries can have a profound impact in the future of humankind. Dijkstra literally changed the world with his 20-minute masterpiece.
[02:49] To learn more about Dijkstra's algorithm, check out my full video essay on the Free Code Camp YouTube channel.