Young Sheldon Season 7 Isn't The First Time Sheldon Cooper Wrote A Crappy Algorithm

Although “Young Sheldon” has come under fire for diverging from “The Big Bang Theory” canon and retconning events from Sheldon’s past, the prequel series does connect to its predecessor through its characters and storylines — like Sheldon’s money-making scheme in “A Frankenstein’s Monster and a Crazy Church Guy.” This is a clear reference to the lousy algorithm Sheldon creates in Season 2, Episode 13 of “TBBT.”

In the episode, which is titled “The Friendship Algorithm,” Sheldon (Jim Parsons) attempts to make friends with Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie) because he wants to use a top-of-the-line university grid computer. In order to accomplish this, he creates what he calls “The Friendship Algorithm.” “I believe I’ve isolated the algorithm for making friends,” Sheldon excitedly tells Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Howard (Simon Helberg) when it’s finished. But unfortunately, just like the stock market algorithm, his friendship algorithm is deeply flawed. While trying to implement it to befriend Kripke, Sheldon gets stuck in an infinite loop. Engineer Howard has to fix it by putting in an escape clause that allows him to accept the least objectionable activity proposed by the other party.

As a result, Sheldon is forced to endure an afternoon of rock climbing (which ends with him passing out) only to realize that all his hard work and effort with Kripke was all in vain because his new friend isn’t the one in charge of the computer he wanted to use. “This entire endeavor seems to have been an exercise in futility,” Sheldon concludes.