(Selected at random from the course evaluations submitted by students near the end of the semester. Well, OK, not exactly selected at random.) This was close to -- not the absolute, but close -- to one of the worst classes I've taken here at Harvard. The lectures were useless, the book was incomprehensible, and the teaching staff was barely competent and completely disorganized. Prof. Denenberg showed early promise as a riveting lecturer who had done a lot of thinking about higher education and would be a great lecturer. Apparently, however, Prof. Denenberg failed to realize that the CS121 style of teaching -- read off your own notes that you simultaneously put up on the overhead projector and hand out to the students -- is the absolute hands-down BEST way to reduce students to stupefied, uninterested, uncaring blobs, as well as the world's least effective way of encouraging students to come to class. Instead of subjecting myself to this ordeal, it was easier to learn off of the notes or book. The book -- just because the Prof. wrote it doesn't mean it's any good! There is a classic text in this field, and there's a reason it's the classic: its explanations are much clearer, much better, than the infinitely dull book we were subjected to. So I also tried section, which was of no use whatsoever. All this says nothing of the organization of the class, which was abysmal. The TFs were totally disorganized, the responsibilities and requirements (for example, about the breakdown of problem sets into sections) ill-defined and shifting, the method of returning homeworks totally ludicrous. Did I learn anything from this class? Sure! How NOT to teach algorithms; and something about algorithms, in the hardest, most onerous, time-tested manner: ON MY OWN.