Is it worth it to load your head with algorithms and data structures?

Question

IT education

Hello!
I want to work in my direct specialty - a programmer. Now I am tightening up my knowledge, a lot has been forgotten (at the moment I work in technical support). My colleague advised me to give up programming for a while and study algorithms and data structures better. Decided to do so. I chose a book by Niklaus Wirth.

I have already read the first 40 pages, but I did not understand anything. Here it is completely. Well, I remember what arrays and records are, for example. I know how to work with them (I studied all this while studying at the institute). You just need to refresh your memory. But that's what the author of the book wanted to convey - passed by my brain. Honestly, after reading a couple of pages, I wanted to close it. And I have already read 40 pages. Here I read a page - I seem to have read it, but what I read - hell knows ...

Actually, why did I even ask this question? I am constantly haunted by the feeling that either I am terribly stupid, or I am doing something wrong, because I have not learned almost anything. 95% of the information in this book was somehow missed... In this regard, the question is: is it worth it to study algorithms and data structures at the initial stages? Or is it better to postpone? I just don't really feel like I've learned anything for myself... Or maybe it's better to change the author?

Answer 1

My colleague advised me to give up programming for a while and study algorithms and data structures better.

Very popular idiotic advice. This is the same as advising someone who has not yet learned the alphabet to learn the literary methods of writing poems.