Unlock the Power of Algorithmic Thinking: Discover How Computer Science Can Help You Make Better Decisions in Life

Amazon Customer: Authors take the mental models of computer/data science and apply them in real life domains. They break thetheoretical barriers. Excellent book.

India on Dec 05, 2023

Traveller: Explained computing, mathematical, statistical theories with everyday practical applications. I enjoyed reading this very much. I will revisit some of the chapters later

United States on Dec 02, 2023

Arjo D.: Fonts are big enough to read comfortable for a person with pretty bad eyes, paper quality is good. But it could be made a little more durable with better, harder covers.

Singapore on Nov 17, 2023

Sarda: Un po’ difficile per chi non ha tanta conoscenza di matematica ma lo sforzo vale la pena. Lo consiglio.

Italy on Sep 14, 2023

Jack Coles: This was a superb attempt to use the methods and working practices of computer scientists, and some less technical algorithms too, in everyday situations. As it states, ‘Algorithms to Live By’.

I’m generally not a fan of the sort of smart-thinking books which aggregate and cherry-pick research and force it through one unhelpful paradigm. They usually have an awful subtitle, and choose poor quality research to back up their points. They all end up saying the same thing, largely.

This book is not one of those. It explained things in a much easier and accessible way than I have ever seen them explained, such as caching, distributions and Bayesian probability. And it also introduced the reader to a number of ways computer scientists think and terms and framings that they use in everyday work that applies in real life.

This book could apply to a great many situations for the reader, from work problems to everyday life - like selling a house - and is simple, yet technical. The authors are good at communicating their thoughts, even if they do make one or two charitable assertions about some aspects that relate to what they are covering.

There is good...

United Kingdom on Feb 16, 2023

Justinian Vonkost: When one thinks of algorithms, it is often in association with computers or machines. Not humans. It is also common to think algorithms are there to provide a simple, neat solution to complex problems only a machine could solve. Or that algorithms can, once fed enough information, predict one’s every action and solve every problem. The main premise of Algorithms to Live By is to disabuse one of such notions. Algorithms to Live By explores how regular people use algorithms without even realizing it in their day-to-day lives. By doing so, the authors hope to destigmatize the word and get people to see the concept differently. Though the book can be dry at times, the authors manage to write a book that is accessible to most people. And there are moments of insight that do make the book a fascinating read.

As aforementioned, the book explores how people use algorithms in their day-to-day to accomplish tasks. They focus on several elements: explore/exploit, or when it is best to continue to look for something better or make a choice from what one already knows; sorting and tradeoffs; and scheduling being among the subjects of focus. What makes these sections interesting is...

United States on May 31, 2021

Felipe C. S. Moitta: Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (Christian, Brian;Griffiths, Tom)
- Seu destaque na página 20 | posição 340-343 | Adicionado: quarta-feira, 19 de julho de 2017 10:05:57

Of course, there’s no reason that net worth—or, for that matter, typing speed—needs to be the thing that you’re measuring. Any yardstick that provides full information on where an applicant stands relative to the population at large will change the solution from the Look-Then-Leap Rule to the Threshold Rule and will dramatically boost your chances of finding the single best applicant in the group.

Some problems are better avoided than solved.

Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.

“After searching for a while, we humans just tend to get bored. It’s not irrational to get bored, but it’s hard to model that rigorously.”

Simply put, exploration is gathering information, and exploitation is using the information you have to get a known good result.

So explore when you will have time to use the resulting knowledge, exploit when you’re ready to cash in. The interval makes the strategy.

The next time you open...

Brazil on Feb 18, 2019

fitzalling: For me, the book takes intellectual effort to absorb. As I was preparing to write this review, I was further impressed with the range of information presented by the authors. I am personally undertaking an investigation of machine learning, artificial intelligence, data mining, etc; The book fit into this investigation. If you have interests in this area (or areas), I think you'll find the book useful. It probably shouldn't have, but the parallels between common human problems and computer programming surprised me. As the book has had a large number of reviewers already, I will highlight some, but far from all, of the topics of each chapter so you may see if they make you curious. While the book speaks of algorithms to live by, the mathematics in the book is highly limited.

Optimal stopping - how many people out of 100 possible candidates should one interview for a given position (including that of spouse)? 37%, Why? Read the book.

The Explore/Exploit dichotomy - Should one ask the question "What's new" or "What's best"? Your answer may depend on your time horizon. As your time horizon shortens, "what's best" may be the better question. The book explains why. The...

United States on Jun 19, 2017