"Algorithms to Live By" by Brian Christian - Book Byte #367
Jason Ziebarth
Founder of Club255 — Helping thousands of STEM Professionals Connect with Each Other, Build their Career and Defeat their Inner Critic.
The Computer Science of Human Decisions
Top Quotes from the Book
“Seemingly innocuous language like 'Oh, I'm flexible' or 'What do you want to do tonight?' has a dark computational underbelly that should make you think twice. It has the veneer of kindness about it, but it does two deeply alarming things. First, it passes the cognitive buck: 'Here's a problem, you handle it.' Second, by not stating your preferences, it invites the others to simulate or imagine them. And as we have seen, the simulation of the minds of others is one of the biggest computational challenges a mind (or machine) can ever face.”
“Don’t always consider all your options. Don’t necessarily go for the outcome that seems best every time. Make a mess on occasion. Travel light. Let things wait. Trust your instincts and don’t think too long. Relax. Toss a coin. Forgive, but don’t forget. To thine own self be true.”
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“Even the best strategy sometimes yields bad results—which is why computer scientists take care to distinguish between “process” and “outcome.” If you followed the best possible process, then you’ve done all you can, and you shouldn’t blame yourself if things didn’t go your way.”
“Our judgments betray our expectations, and our expectations betray our experience. What we project about the future reveals a lot—about the world we live in, and about our own past.”
“some of the biggest challenges faced by computers and human minds alike: how to manage finite space, finite time, limited attention, unknown unknowns, incomplete information, and an unforeseeable future; how to do so with grace and confidence; and how to do so in a community with others who are all simultaneously trying to do the same.”
“If you want to be a good intuitive Bayesian—if you want to naturally make good predictions, without having to think about what kind of prediction rule is appropriate—you need to protect your priors. Counterintuitively, that might mean turning off the news.”
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“If changing strategies doesn’t help, you can try to change the game. And if that’s not possible, you can at least exercise some control about which games you choose to play. The road to hell is paved with intractable recursions, bad equilibria, and information cascades. Seek out games where honesty is the dominant strategy. Then just be yourself.”
“Sorting something that you will never search is a complete waste; searching something you never sorted is merely inefficient.”
“No choice recurs. We may get similar choices again, but never that exact one. Hesitation—inaction—is just as irrevocable as action. What the motorist, locked on the one-way road, is to space, we are to the fourth dimension: we truly pass this way but once.”
“To try and fail is at least to learn; to fail to try is to suffer the inestimable loss of what might have been.”
“The greater the uncertainty, the bigger the gap between what you can measure and what matters, the more you should watch out for overfitting - that is, the more you should prefer simplicity”
“It’s fairly intuitive that never exploring is no way to live. But it’s also worth mentioning that never exploiting can be every bit as bad. In the computer science definition, exploitation actually comes to characterize many of what we consider to be life’s best moments. A family gathering together on the holidays is exploitation. So is a bookworm settling into a reading chair with a hot cup of coffee and a beloved favorite, or a band playing their greatest hits to a crowd of adoring fans, or a couple that has stood the test of time dancing to “their song.”
Summary
Algorithms are not unintelligible devices used solely to aid computers and mathematicians. Even though we may not be aware of it, we actually use them on a daily basis. Algorithms have a wealth of problem-solving knowledge that can assist you in making wise choices, forecasting likely outcomes, and improving your productivity.
Here are some practical suggestions that you can implement in your life right now. Start with the easy tasks. Choose the algorithm with the quickest processing time the next time your to-do list grows too lengthy and you want to cross off as many items as you can. Sort your jobs according to how quickly they can be completed. You may do a lot of tasks in a short amount of time thanks to this.
Until Tomorrow,
Jason Ziebarth (Founder Club255)
JZ#372