Even better than the crazy languages, is seeing some fundamental math used to prevent having to do a ridiculously expensive search.

That said, raw brute force often did far better than you'd like to admit.

The biggest thing I learned from PE was that neither elegant theory nor brute force had a monopoly on successful optimization strategies. It's been something I've carried with me ever since and has over and over again proven its value.

A real gem of a resource.