<a href="https://geni.us/live-by-free-audiobook">Algorithms to Live By</a> offers shortcuts and hacks to help streamline your life. Algorithms are inserted into computers and other forms of technology to solve problems. However, there is no reason that we cannot use algorithms in our everyday lives. Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths describe how algorithms have been used for centuries. Plus, how we use specific algorithms daily. However, some algorithms are more efficient than others. This book provides an outline of the algorithms that can help make your life easier and more enjoyable.

The Computer Science of Human Decisions

Unless we’re willing to spend eons striving for perfection every time we encounter a hitch, hard problems demand that instead of spinning our tires we imagine easier versions and tackle those first. When applied correctly, this is not just wishful thinking, not fantasy or idle daydreaming. It’s one of our best ways of making progress.

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.

Most people associate algorithms with computers and other forms of technology. However, the word actually dates back to the ninth century. The Persian mathematician, Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi, is the first person to use the word ‘algorithm.’ However, the use of concepts like algorithms dates back to the Sumerians. The Sumerians were a civilization that existed four thousand years ago. This civilization used a finite number of steps to solve problems. We use a finite number of steps to complete multiple tasks each day. Importantly, this is also the technique at the heart of algorithms.

Algorithms Do Not Just Apply to Computers

As long as a set of finite steps are followed, then anything can be an algorithm. For example, a recipe is a type of algorithm. It involves a series of instructions to obtain the desired result. Writing up a list of pros and cons for doing something is an Intuitive Algorithm. We might consider these algorithms as more subjective than computer algorithms. Still, these algorithms use the same process and reach the same solution. In both instances, when certain conditions are met, the next step is made in the process.

As well as telling us how to conduct a task step-by-step, algorithms can tell us when to stop doing a task. As humans, we struggle to know when to stop searching for something. Additionally, we have cognitive biases that impact our choices when searching.

Algorithms Can Tell Us When to Stop

The authors of this book suggest that the Optimal Stopping Algorithm is the solution to this. If there are 100 options, this algorithm will state that you should look at the first 37 without taking any of them. Use these first 37 as a standard. Subsequently, whichever item meets these standards should be taken. This algorithm will not guarantee the best result. However, it will mean you have a much higher chance of acquiring an item significantly better than just guessing. It does not matter what you are searching for: 37% of the total is where you draw your standard.

As well as advising us on when we should stop searching, algorithms can also tell us when to explore something new. In the book, the authors give the example of a slot machine. Some people will just sit at the machine until they win. However, there is always a thought in people’s minds whether they should simply walk away despite losing lots of money. Based on the alternative name for slot machines, this dilemma is called the Multi-Armed Bandit Problem.

Algorithms Can Tell Us When to Start

One strategy often used by gamblers is to stay if they are winning and shift if they are losing. However, this isn’t a logical way of choosing when to explore something new. Alternatively, a better method is to use the Upper Confidence Bound Algorithm.

Here are the steps to this algorithm, applied to gambling machines:<ol><li>Find a machine that offers the best expected value. In this case, it is the machine with the biggest jackpot as you are unaware of probabilities.</li><li>While playing, make sure that you keep track of the real outcome (how much money you’re winning). The real outcome should be compared with how much you were expecting to win by this point.</li><li>If the real outcome is consistently lower than your expected outcome, you should move on to another machine. This machine should be the one with the second-biggest jackpot.</li><li>Repeat the process.</li></ol>

The authors of this book explain that organized chaos can be fine. As long as you know where everything is, you will be productive. However, if your filing system is not efficiently organized, there are algorithms to improve your organization.

Algorithms Can Help Us Organize Our Work

The authors describe three algorithms, specifically:<ol><li>Bubble Sort</li></ol>﻿This algorithm is the least efficient. With this method, you organize one pair at a time. Then, you repeat this process over and over until everything is sorted. The authors give an example of the bubble sorting algorithm for alphabetizing books. With a disorganized shelf, you would start with the letter A. You would compare the first two books and sort these two alphabetically. Then, you compare the item that is now the second book with the third book. This process is repeated until you have reached the end of the collection.

The insertion sort method is far more efficient if you have to sort a substantial amount of items. If you consider the book analogy again, the insertion sort method would involve taking all the books off the shelf. Then, placing them back one-by-one, ensuring that the books are placed in the correct order each time you place a book.

2. Insertion Sort

Finally, the merge sort method involves dividing everything into multiple piles. Each pile should be sorted from A to Z. Then, these piles should be merged.

3. Merge Sort

Thrashing is a very recognizable human state. If you’ve ever had a moment where you wanted to stop doing everything just to have the chance to write down everything you were supposed to be doing, but couldn’t spare the time, you’ve thrashed.

Scheduling our lives can be highly complex and is often a daily challenge. As well as work demands, multiple other life demands make fitting everything difficult. However, some algorithms can help improve how you schedule your life. <ul><li>The Earliest Due Date Algorithm – A straightforward algorithm. The 1st task you complete is the one with the nearest deadline.</li><li>Moore’s Algorithm – It recommends skipping the task that requires the most time. Instead, you should work toward finishing more tasks overall. This algorithm is more effective when you do not have enough time to complete every task.</li></ul>

Algorithms Can Help Us Schedule Our Lives

The authors advise you avoid priority inversion at all costs. Priority Inversion is when you focus on too many small tasks, and none of them end up getting done. You should be aiming to solely focus on one task at a time rather than multitasking.

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.

Predicting probable outcomes is viable when using the correct algorithms. Predicting probable outcomes based on algorithms dates back to 18th century England. Reverend Thomas Bayes developed a simple way of predicting future outcomes. The authors of this book apply Bayes’ theorem to lottery scratch tickets. It recommends people who buy scratch tickets consider the prevalence of winning tickets in circulation. With this as an assumption, it is possible to calculate the probability of your tickets’ specific results.

Algorithms Can Help You Predict the Future

As with many things, the more information you have, the more precise you will be. One method that utilizes vast amounts of information to predict future outcomes is the phenomenon’s distribution pattern. Other names for this distribution are the normal distribution or bell curve. If something is normally distributed, you can assume it will be characterized by features in the middle rather than extremes when you encounter it.

Data overload is often considered in relation to a classic thought experiment. In this thought experiment, two generals are preparing to launch a joint attack on a city. This city is located in a fortified valley. These generals are on the two hills either side of the valley. So, the only way they can simultaneously attack is by agreeing on an exact time. On top of this, they can only communicate by sending individuals through the valley where their enemies lie. This thought experiment was used by computer scientists as a way of determining algorithms for safe message transmission.

Algorithms Prevent Data Overload

This was the first method created. This solution involved sending multiple messengers with the hope that one would slip through undetected. However, sending too many messengers can lead to an overload. With regard to computers, this would be a server overload.

Method I – Retransmitted Till Breakdown

If a server overload is created, then exponential back-off is a method that should work. Instead of frantically hitting refresh, you could wait a few minutes for the traffic to ease. The exponential part relates to how long you wait between refreshes. The authors suggest waiting twice as long each time you are given an error message when refreshing.

Method II – Exponential Backoff

This one hopes to prevent the overload from happening. It determines the max. amount of data a network can handle. It starts by only sending one package of data. Then, if this is fine, it sends double the amount. It continues this process until it reaches the point of overload. This can be applied to your everyday life. Too much info. can lead to your brain overloading. ∴ you should start by introducing small amounts of information and test how far you can go before your brain is overloaded. Once you know the limit, you'll have a better understanding of when you should stop working on a task.

Method III – Additive Increase, Multiplicative Decrease

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.

Complicated scenarios often require complex algorithms to fully understand what is happening. However, algorithms are limited in the complexity with which they can be applied. The issue is that, when predicting something complex, you will be tempted to add variables until the algorithm can fully explain your data. This includes explaining the errors in the data. However, doing this is problematic as it leads to something called over-fitting. You have made the model highly complicated and specific to the data you are using. Hence, it cannot be applied flexibly to other data.

Algorithms Do Have Their Limits

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.

Algorithms let us go for ‘good enough’ rather than always striving for perfection. If we consistently use algorithms in our lives, we will benefit greatly and can start to relax more. Our brains are built like computers. Therefore, like computers, we should start complementing them with algorithms.

Concluding Points

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

A fascinating exploration of how insights from computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives, helping to solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mind All our lives are constrained by limited space and time, limits that give rise to a particular set of problems. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? What balance of new activities and familiar favorites is the most fulfilling? These may seem like uniquely human quandaries, but they are not: computers, too, face the same constraints, so computer scientists have been grappling with their version of such issues for decades. And the solutions they've found have much to teach us. In a dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, acclaimed author Brian Christian and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths show how the algorithms used by computers can 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 understanding the workings of memory, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.

Algorithms to Live By

Literature is not only a mirror; it is a map, a geography of the mind.

Because of various benefits which one can reap from Mind Maps, it will help you succeed in academia, or in the workplace. They allow you to bridge the gap between the thought and the capture, thus improving retention.

The Importance of Mind Maps

Mind maps are a visual representation of information, with branches representing subtopics from a common idea.

What are Mind Maps?

The slash mind map utilizes slashes in favor of classic notes. You can have branches which cover more specific information.

The Slash Mind Map

It will save you significant amounts of time if you omit specific facts from a lecture. Instead, cover broad topics with each node. You can always search things up.

No facts - Just concepts

<ol><li>Start with your main idea</li><li>Add branches to this idea</li><li>Add images/colors</li><li>Continue branching</li></ol>

The Guide

Make a node in your mind map, generally the title of the lecture, or the main idea of the current slide.Remember - stay as general as possible.

The Main Idea

The initial branches should still be general. As you branch out further, and the radial tree gets more complex, the nodes become more specific in scope.Don't jot facts here. This should just be a title of the subtopic, or concept.

Branching out

If you are a visual learner, and find joy in aesthetic colors/images, you can supplement the mind map structure with auxiliary images.Try to do this after the lecture is over.

Images/Colors

I have started to use mind maps more often, and I love them. They force you to take what the lecturer says, and summarize it as simply as possible. Further, you have to break that summary into logical, coherent parts. I can take a glance at my lesson summaries, and see the general flow of the lecture. If I need to see a specific topic, I can search the tree formation by subtopic, or use Google if necessary.

Final Thoughts

I recently wrote an article on my blog, EdEfficiency, on the topic of Mind Maps. I started implementing them in my Biology lectures, and saw miraculous results. I was able to remember more content, and had easy notes to reference later on.

Active recall allows the user to study much more efficiently. It prompts 
you to recall the term from your memory, instead of trying to embed it 
there through re-reading. This article teaches you active recall techniques 
that you can implement right away.

Notetaking

Active Recall: The path to mastery. | EdEfficiency

It's an interdisciplinary strategy where a student or group build(s) of a single concept or idea: a drama, an element in chemistry, a biography, a vocabulary word, an event in history, a commercial product.The concept or idea is placed in the center of a blank sheet of paper and representations of other ideas are connected to that central concept are added, branching out in all directions on the page.

The Mind Map

Teachers can use mind-maps as a review exercise, a formative assessment, or an interim assessment tool, by providing students individually or in groups with printed labels and asking students to organize the information in a way that shows relationships.

Using labels in Mind Mapping

Adhesive address or shipping labels come in a variety of shapes and sizes, which makes them ideal for a variety of activities in the classroom. One way to use labels to encourage critical thinking in the classroom is to have students use labels printed with ideas or topics from a unit of study in order to create mind-maps or diagrams that visually organize information on a topic.

Algorithms to Live By

Active Recall: The path to mastery. | EdEfficiency

Adhesive Labels Help Critical Thinking Stick

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