The James Bond of Binary Trees

I spent my Friday night like James Bond. You know, wearing a dashing tux, seducing the hottest woman in the room, hitting a straight flush in poker…

Oh, wait…

Not that James Bond. I spent my night like the “behind-the-scenes” James Bond who does nothing but study, study, study. Bond isn’t naturally cool, he’s gotta work for it.

After a long, busy week, there’s nothing I wanted to do more on Friday night than blast music and program.

This is the point I’d normally say, “I’m not a dork.”

But I had fun last night. So I’m embracing the data dork I’ve become.

Anyway, last night, I had a date with some binary tree classes.

Of all the data structures I’ve been studying recently, this is one of the few I’ve never worked with before – ever.

So, it was a bit challenging trying to figure out the logic behind how a binary tree class works. But remember…

I’m a data dork. I learn quickly.

I may not be the James Bond of binary tree programming (yet), but I learned a lot in just two hours of studying.

This blog post isn’t gonna be super motivational, but I do have one piece of advice for you…

The end of the binary tree chapter in my book focuses on inverting a binary tree.

And when I saw this, I nearly pissed my pants.

I wanted no part of that.

That’s when I channeled my inner James Bond. I put on my big-boy tux and faced the challenge head-on.

It turns out inverting a binary tree is pretty simple stuff…

So, what’s the lesson?

Don’t be scared of difficult concepts you’re trying to learn.

If you approach them with a fearless mentality, you’ll realize the truth – they’re easier to understand than you think.