title: Advantages using Number.MIN_VALUE over first element value when finding max value
body: <p>I've seen a few algorithms using <code>Number.MIN_VALUE</code> as the start value of max when finding the highest value in an array. I cannot see the benefits of this. Here are two ways of providing the number 90.</p>
  
  <pre><code>var arr = [1, 10, 66, 90],
      len = arr.length,
      max = arr[0],
      i;
  
  // find max number
  for (i = 1; i &lt; len; i += 1) {
      if (max &lt; arr[i])
          max = arr[i];
  }
  
  console.log(max); // 90
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Versus:</p>
  
  <pre><code>var arr = [1, 10, 66, 90],
      len = arr.length,
      max = Number.MIN_VALUE,
      i;
  
  // find max number
  for (i = 0; i &lt; len; i += 1) {
      if (max &lt; arr[i])
          max = arr[i];
  }
  
  console.log(max); // 90
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I cannot see <em>any</em> advantage in using the second method using <code>Number.MIN_VALUE</code>. The <em>only</em> thing I can think about is <em>readability</em> perhaps.</p>