Clever Algorithms: Nature-Inspired Programming Recipes
I saw this book on HN several years ago, and thought it was pretty interesting, and maybe worth reading.<p>Unluckily, it didn't help me very much in learning more about this field, nor did I think it was very helpful for solving other problems. Basically, it's more of an encyclopedia than a textbook, and not a good starting point.<p>Every post is basically separated into "biological inspiration", a brief description of the algorithm itself, and then a listing of the pseudocode and Ruby code.<p>The primary thing I was left wanting was 1. Either an intuitive explanation of why the algorithm worked well or a more rigorous mathematical explanation. 2. A comparison with the other algorithms.<p>TL;DR: A good book for what it is. However, if you're somebody looking for an introduction to these algorithms, look elsewhere.