Algorithms To Live By

A friend of mine who is both a professor of economics and my tennis nemesis recently recommended the book Algorithms To Live By.

ATLB's premise is that computer scientists have been teaching computers to solve problems for humans optimally for decades, and there are a number of insights that are ready for humans to learn back from computers. 

My friend warned me that it might be a slow read for recreational mathematicians, but on the bright side, he smiled, there are no formulas! 

The book is structured on a short list of computer science-y topics like Exploring/Exploiting, Sorting, Caching, Randomness and Networking but underneath the illustrative examples are richly varied - tennis tournament structures, bomb calculations, anticipatory package shipment.

ATLB’s authors (one a cognitive computing professor at Berkeley, and the other a widely published science writer) brought the topic to life by interviewing algorithm designers who made significant contributions to computer science about their discoveries … and about how their designs changed their lives beyond work. 

If you are interested in algorithms, life hacks, or smart and interesting people, then this book is for you. 

読んでください！