Originally Posted by
laserlight
You're talking about after having partitioned based on the pivot and slotting the pivot into place, right? Why do you keep looking at the previous step's pivot when you should be comparing elements to the current pivot? The previous step's pivot isn't discarded, it is just no longer messed around with because you've moved on to the next recursive step. If in a "real life analogue" you keep looking at it, then that's your own problem. You're just wasting your own time. Why don't you look outside the window as well and ask why doesn't quicksort look outside of the window?