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Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions - Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths

4 stars

This is a very interesting book about how understanding computer algorithms can help you understand human behavior. It also addresses the shortcomings of using computer algorithms to make decisions. I found it extremely interesting. Although I have no background in computer science, I did take a game theory class in college and a lot of the theories addressed are similar to those I learned about in animal behavior classes (I was an ecology and government double major). I did not find it too complicated to understand, especially since the author gave real world examples (organizing your closet to explain caching for example). There were a couple parts where my mind started to wander (I listened to it on audio book), but overall it was very a interesting read that I learned from.

Thanks for the intriguing review - this looks good. My only hesitation is that it looks like one of those 'for lay readers' books that might be a bit dull if you already have some familiarity with the subject. (I have studied Computer Science and worked in IT for a while). Does it go into enough depth / have an interesting enough angle that I'd still get something from it, do you think?

I agree with Nikki - this looks cool as long as it’s not too basic. I recently read Cathy O’Neil’s “Weapons of Math Destruction” which focuses on serious biases or other flaws in algorithms and their effect on decision making so it might be good to read this as a companion book

Nikki wrote: "Thanks for the intriguing review - this looks good. My only hesitation is that it looks like one of those 'for lay readers' books that might be a bit dull if you already have some familiarity with ..."

I suspect that it won't be a lot of new material for someone who studied computer science. It covers a lot of types of algorithms and gives the history of those algorithms and relates it to non-computer science examples. So it may be interesting to see how optimal stopping time relates to choosing a parking spot, deciding to propose marriage, and hiring someone. But if you are already familiar with the secretary problem you may find some of the information obvious and the history and explanation of the secretary problem to be old material. The chapters were:

1. Optimal Stopping
2. Explore/Exploit
3. Sorting
4. Caching
5. Scheduling
6. Bayes's Rule
7. Overfitting
8. Relaxation
9. Randomness
10. Networking
11. Game Theory