I read about efforts to discover compounds using random methods back in the 90s, and have been trying to research it lately, to see if the "shake and bake" meth

I read about efforts to discover compounds using random methods back in the 90s, and have been trying to research it lately, to see if the "shake and bake" method is still a thing. Can anyone point me to relevant research? I was surprised by estimates given about the number of possible compounds, so many that there would not be enough time in the universe to make and test them all, even limiting the primary elements to a dozen or so. I guess there are a multitude of ways that the same atoms can fit together. I've tried to find research on computer simulations. Apparently, only rough predictions can be made. My searches have been pretty fruitless, though, and I'd welcome help.