IMO the part of programming that interfaces with humans and requirements is just as tricky (in a different way) and just as important. Also, have you ever form

IMO the part of programming that interfaces with humans and requirements is just as tricky (in a different way) and just as important. Also, have you ever formally studied maths? People don't just come up with this kind of thing. They read about algorithms in textbooks. They might not have read this specific algorithm (which may be original), but they'll have read lots of similar ones.