Is there a specific name for this algorithm? The intuition behind it is indeed a challenge. Was hoping there are similar questions to this one to grow that intuition.
Here's what I asked ChatGPT: "So are you building layers of mountains?" Its response was this: "Yes, you can think of it as 'building layers of mountains.' In the analogy, each element in the target array represents a "mountain" of a certain height, and we want to build these mountains starting from an initial state where everything is flat (zeros). Here's how the process works with the analogy: The First Mountain: We begin with the first element of the target array. To build the first "mountain" (i.e., to reach the first value in the target), we need exactly target[0] operations. This represents the height of the first mountain. The Next Mountains: For each subsequent element, we need to build additional "height" only if the next target element is greater than the previous one. If target[i] > target[i-1], we need to perform target[i] - target[i-1] operations to raise the "mountain" from the previous height to the current one. No Lowering of Mountains: If the next target element is smaller or equal to the previous one, no extra operations are needed, as the mountains don't need to be "lowered." In short, you're stacking new layers only when there's an increase in the target heights between consecutive elements, and the total number of operations corresponds to adding those new layers."
Is there a specific name for this algorithm? The intuition behind it is indeed a challenge. Was hoping there are similar questions to this one to grow that intuition.
Here's what I asked ChatGPT: "So are you building layers of mountains?"
Its response was this:
"Yes, you can think of it as 'building layers of mountains.' In the analogy, each element in the target array represents a "mountain" of a certain height, and we want to build these mountains starting from an initial state where everything is flat (zeros).
Here's how the process works with the analogy:
The First Mountain: We begin with the first element of the target array. To build the first "mountain" (i.e., to reach the first value in the target), we need exactly target[0] operations. This represents the height of the first mountain.
The Next Mountains: For each subsequent element, we need to build additional "height" only if the next target element is greater than the previous one. If target[i] > target[i-1], we need to perform target[i] - target[i-1] operations to raise the "mountain" from the previous height to the current one.
No Lowering of Mountains: If the next target element is smaller or equal to the previous one, no extra operations are needed, as the mountains don't need to be "lowered."
In short, you're stacking new layers only when there's an increase in the target heights between consecutive elements, and the total number of operations corresponds to adding those new layers."
Amazing explanation :)
Thanks for your videos. Love it to the core