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The Blurb On The Back:
The secret recipe for modern success.
Ali Almossawi’s first book Bad Arguments (“A flawless collection of flaws” Alice Roberts) was a cult hit all round the world. In Bad Choices, he takes on algorithms, those perennially misunderstood principles that underlie so many of our everyday activities. Taking us through twelve very funny, highly illustrated situations – from how we listen to music to finding every item on a shopping list as quickly as possible - Bad Choices explains how algorithms work and how to use them for yourself.
We all have an intuitive knack for solving problems, but can we use this ability to find items in logarithmic time? Can we create cognitive stacks to cut down on errands? Can we figure out which book we want to read next with link analysis? Almossawai shows us how and once we recognise what makes a method faster and more efficient, we’ll all become more nimble, creative thinkers, ready to face new challenges.
Covering everything from maze-solving in Ancient Greece to the Two Ronnies, and from rapping in supermarkets to how Facebook predicts our likes, in opening algorithmic thinking to all readers Bad Choices shows us how to choose better – and live happier.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Ali Almossawi’s introduction to algorithmic thinking (illustrated by Alejandro Giraldo) is easy to follow if you’re completely new to the subject and takes you through basic algorithmic methods and fundamental concepts but some of the examples are a little patronising and the humour too strained in parts so it’s really only useful to complete novices.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Ali Almossawi’s first book Bad Arguments (“A flawless collection of flaws” Alice Roberts) was a cult hit all round the world. In Bad Choices, he takes on algorithms, those perennially misunderstood principles that underlie so many of our everyday activities. Taking us through twelve very funny, highly illustrated situations – from how we listen to music to finding every item on a shopping list as quickly as possible - Bad Choices explains how algorithms work and how to use them for yourself.
We all have an intuitive knack for solving problems, but can we use this ability to find items in logarithmic time? Can we create cognitive stacks to cut down on errands? Can we figure out which book we want to read next with link analysis? Almossawai shows us how and once we recognise what makes a method faster and more efficient, we’ll all become more nimble, creative thinkers, ready to face new challenges.
Covering everything from maze-solving in Ancient Greece to the Two Ronnies, and from rapping in supermarkets to how Facebook predicts our likes, in opening algorithmic thinking to all readers Bad Choices shows us how to choose better – and live happier.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Ali Almossawi’s introduction to algorithmic thinking (illustrated by Alejandro Giraldo) is easy to follow if you’re completely new to the subject and takes you through basic algorithmic methods and fundamental concepts but some of the examples are a little patronising and the humour too strained in parts so it’s really only useful to complete novices.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
