Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime?

Exploring how insights from computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives, Algorithms to Live By helps to solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mind. Whether asking how to have better hunches, when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices or how best to connect with others - the solutions computers have found have much to teach us.

Bestselling author Brian Christian and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths show how the algorithms developed for computers can be applied - from finding your spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing your inbox to understanding the workings of memory. Where you have a dilemma, they have a rule, and each fascinating algorithm turns the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.