Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

by Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths

Overview

An exploration of how computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives to solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mind.

What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? What balance of the new and familiar is the most fulfilling? These may seem like uniquely human quandaries, but they are not. Computers, like us, confront limited space and time, so computer scientists have been grappling with similar problems for decades. And the solutions they’ve found have much to teach us.

In a dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths show how algorithms developed for computers also untangle very human questions. They explain how to have better hunches and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others. From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one’s inbox to peering into the future, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627790369
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/19/2016
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	536,560
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Brian Christian is the author of The Most Human Human, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, New York Times editors’ choice, and a New Yorker favorite book of the year. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The Paris Review, as well as in scientific journals such as Cognitive Science, and has been translated into eleven languages. He lives in San Francisco.

Tom Griffiths is a professor of psychology and cognitive science at UC Berkeley, where he directs the Computational Cognitive Science Lab. He has published more than 150 scientific papers on topics ranging from cognitive psychology to cultural evolution, and has received awards from the National Science Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the American Psychological Association, and the Psychonomic Society, among others. He lives in Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction
Algorithms to Live By

1 Optimal Stopping
When to Stop Looking

2 Explore/Exploit
Th e Latest vs. the Greatest

3 Sorting
Making Order

4 Caching
Forget About It

5 Scheduling
First Things First

6 Bayes’s Rule
Predicting the Future

7 Overfitting
When to Think Less

8 Relaxation
Let It Slide

9 Randomness
When to Leave It to Chance

10 Networking
How We Connect

11 Game Theory
The Minds of Others

Conclusion
Computational Kindness

Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

As software only becomes ever more sophisticated and powerful—deciding who might get hired or fired, given a loan or denied, convicted or paroled—perhaps the most important function of this entertaining and educational book is in revealing the limiting assumptions, narrow boundaries and tight restrictions of algorithms, and how different they can be from the messy world of humans.

The New York Times Book Review - Zeynep Tufekci

2016-02-15
We are always connected: this is both our blessing and our curse. The problem "is that we're always buffered," just a step behind the flood of information flowing toward and past us, all the books and movies and other ingredients of what the authors call "bufferbloat." What we need is a good strategy and filter, a greater cybernetic component in the way we think. Therewith the value of this book, seemingly loosely organized but in fact craftily programmed to build from one good idea to the next. The value of being aware of algorithmic thinking—of the thornier details of "human algorithm design," as Christian (The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive, 2011) and Griffiths (Psychology and Cognitive Science/Univ. of California) put it—is not just better problem solving, but also greater insight into the human mind. And who doesn't want to know how we tick? The authors lead us into the labyrinth with lessons on such matters as improved search and sort—sorting being "key to the human experience of information," and thus a good thing to ponder, whether on how to organize your T-shirt drawer or your dissertation. The procrastinators and untidy among us will rejoice in knowing that sometimes a mess is not just OK, but even "the optimal choice," as long as your search mechanism is good enough. Elsewhere, Christian and Griffiths apply Bayes-ian principles to gambling; if the reader does not emerge from the casino a winner, at least he or she may lose a little less. Most of the examples in this dense but lucid account are emphatically of the real world, but some are more meaningful than others: most people will find it better to know when to fold 'em, for instance, than to understand why Katy Perry can never possibly reply to all her fan mail. An entertaining, intelligently presented book for the numerate and computer literate.

Kirkus Reviews

A remarkable book... A solid, research-based book that’s applicable to real life. The algorithms the authors discuss are, in fact, more applicable to real-life problems than I’d have ever predicted.... It’s well worth the time to find a copy of Algorithms to Live By and dig deeper.”
—Forbes

“By the end of the book, I was convinced. Not because I endorse the idea of living like some hyper-rational Vulcan, but because computing algorithms could be a surprisingly useful way to embrace the messy compromises of real, non-Vulcan life.”
—The Guardian (UK)

“I absolutely reveled in this book... It's the perfect antidote to the argument you often hear from young math students: ‘What's the point? I'll never use this in real life!’... The whole business, whether it's the relative simplicity of the 37% rule or the mind-twisting possibilities of game theory, is both potentially practical and highly enjoyable as presented here. Recommended.”
—Popular Science (UK)

“An entertaining, intelligently presented book... Craftily programmed to build from one good idea to the next... The value of being aware of algorithmic thinking—of the thornier details of ‘human algorithm design,’ as Christian and Griffiths put it—is not just better problem solving, but also greater insight into the human mind. And who doesn’t want to know how we tick?”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Compelling and entertaining, Algorithms to Live By is packed with practical advice about how to use time, space, and effort more efficiently. And it’s a fascinating exploration of the workings of computer science and the human mind. Whether you want to optimize your to-do list, organize your closet, or understand human memory, this is a great read.”
—Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit

“In this remarkably lucid, fascinating, and compulsively readable book, Christian and Griffiths show how much we can learn from computers. We’ve all heard about the power of algorithms—but Algorithms to Live Byactually explains, brilliantly, how they work, and how we can take advantage of them to make better decisions in our own lives.”
—Alison Gopnik, coauthor of The Scientist in the Crib

“I’ve been waiting for a book to come along that merges computational models with human psychology—and Christian and Griffiths have succeeded beyond all expectations. This is a wonderful book, written so that anyone can understand the computer science that runs our world—and more importantly, what it means to our lives.”
—David Eagleman, author of Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

From the Publisher

Christian and Griffiths argue that even in our connected lives we are always a few steps behind the information necessary to make the best decisions or follow the best strategy. Using everyday examples, such as selecting a new apartment and choosing a dating companion, they advocate for an approach similar to computer algorithms. Christian provides a serviceable, if geeky, and youthful-sounding narration that is somewhat engaging. To be sure, this audiobook is primarily for those literate in the areas of probability theory, decision-making logic, and related schemes. It’s a highly theoretical examination of the parameters of the human mind facing time and resource constraints. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2016 - AudioFile