13 Loops is derived from a piece of code i had written two years back. I was an infant programmer then, coding in an overnight coding contest, and desperately seeking a solution to permute any 1 to 14 digit number. I knew that a simple recursive function would do the job; but the strain of solving other complex problems and the late night hours were playing on my mind. No matter how hard i racked my brains, i just wasn't able to come up with a recursive solution...And so, i wrote the cheapest code that i ever could - loop from 0 to 13 having a loop from 0 to 12 having a loop from 0 to 11, and so on...and i continued writing such blocks of loops for 14, 13, 12...2 digit numbers!

Well, when the results were announced, i won first prize because i was the only guy who had solved that particular problem. Since then, i have grown up; but that silly piece of code remained with me. Loops or not, what mattered was to get the program working and winning under any condition. Victory belongs to the most persevering...and looking back now, i am not ashamed!