While I may in fact be in the Minimax forest it turns out that the search tree I was barking up might not actually bear the fruit I’m looking for- or rather I didn’t traverse its branches right. So far I haven’t been able to find a consistent pattern in the data I’ve been gathering that will always lead to the best move.

However, at this point the algorithm is most certainly my white whale. There are a few other tasks for me to tackle this week and I’ve already hit my pessimistic estimate on how long the Minimax algorithm would take me… but seeing as how a) I’m learning a TON while I try and solve it and b) this isn’t a client project and c) I’m still a “volunteer” apprentice- I’ve allowed myself to become totally obsessed with figuring it out. Everytime I start to switch gears I think of another way I can try the algorithm and set off hunting a solution. Since it’s already Thursday though I realize I may need to delay my hunt until the weekend.

One upside to this endless hunt is that other things seem relatively easier. Last night I attended an intro to JavaScript class that Ben Reinhart is doing for Code Academy alumni and despite the fact that it was a 500mph overview JS suddenly made a LOT more sense to me, so I got that going for me.

There is one task I’ve been putting off all week that I really should start. In honor of all things Lebowski I’m going to take on the Bowling kata. If I ever perform this one publicly I would hopefully have two screens so that I could play the opening of the movie in the background.