Book Review: Algorithms to Live By - The Computer Science of Human Decisions — Jacek Galowicz's blog

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Jacek Galowicz

A detailed review of 'Algorithms to Live By' by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, covering all 11 chapters. The book bridges computer science concepts — optimal stopping, explore/exploit tradeoffs, sorting, caching, scheduling, Bayes' rule, overfitting, constraint relaxation, randomness, networking, and game theory — with real-life human decision-making scenarios. Each chapter applies a CS algorithm or principle to everyday situations like hiring, relationships, task management, and workplace dynamics. The reviewer highlights standout examples including the 37% rule for optimal stopping, TCP-inspired employee onboarding, the Nash equilibrium of unlimited vacation policies leading to zero vacation taken, and the Miller-Rabin primality test underpinning modern encryption. Best suited for curious non-technical readers, managers of engineers, and early CS students.