An interesting topic, indeed. Check out this gem from Knuth, &quot;The Dangers of Computer Science Theory&quot;: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=QUgmsMm5LcAC&amp;lpg=PA189&amp;ots=xmjDeT6VGz&amp;dq=%22The%20dangers%20of%20computer-science%20theory%22%20knuth&amp;pg=PA189#v=onepage&amp;q=%22The%20dangers%20of%20computer-science%20theory%22%20knuth&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=QUgmsMm5LcAC&amp;lpg=PA189&amp;ots...</a><p>(Sadly, I can&#x27;t find a free PDF. I&#x27;ve sen this in Selected Papers on the Analysis of Algorithms--you can get a used copy from Amazon for a few dollars.)<p>&quot;Is there <i>any</i> area (outside of numerical analysis) where mathematical theory has actually helped computer programmers?&quot;<p>Ironically enough, he mentions bubblesort&#x27;s performance as better in theory than practice for the most part. :P