Reddit reviews Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

I would recommend Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions. It's not as technical as some of the other recommendations on this thread but it's very interesting and introduces you to a lot of applications of CS theory in real life.

Algoriths to Live By by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths. Written for the lay person so very accessible, by a brilliant cognitive scientist at Princeton (though at Berkeley when the book was written).

Vision by David Marr. One of the first and most important books that anyone interested in cognition and computation will ever read. Absolute must if you want to understand why the field began looking at the mind more or less like a computer.

There is a chapter in Algorithms to Live By which claims the effect is beyond silly and annoying.

> 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.

p. 148 Algorithms to Live By, Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths

Link to book on Amazon

/u/xamueljones had suggested we do another collective read-through. I nominate Algorithms to Live By, which is basically a combination of freshman-to-sophomore computer science with a bit of the probabilistic-computation school of cognitive science, for a lay audience.

Thoughts, anyone?

I suppose this might be something along the lines of what you're looking for:

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

It is hard to decouple algorithms from programming and mathematics, but my brother who is neither programmer nor mathematician as well read that book.

Don't know if it was good though.

Algorithms to Live By.

Anything that involves optimal stopping theory (how many significant others to date/apartments to check out before committing) is automatically fascinating – to me anyway.

This could quickly become the "book of stereotypes", and people don't want to be stereotypical, so the stereotypes would change. Not sure it would work.

But I'd like to recommend Algorithms to Live By. It's a bit like a "here are mathematically proven optimal strategies to live by", they are very useful and interesting. Not so far reaching as you'd like, but useful nonetheless.

It’s also an implementation of optimal stopping! It’s the first chapter in a book I’m reading called Algorithms To Live By.

The book is pretty neat so far, so I’d say it’s $12 worth spending, even if you hate to read and only skim through a few pages every other week (like me). It’s an easy-reading type of book, and doesn’t really go in to technical jargon.

This book was mentioned at /r/compsci recently.

https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions/dp/1627790365

Can check my previous answers on this topic (just answered one a few comments ago) and I work in the field high and long enough to lead and hire teams.

> What are some of the best jobs in hardware engineering ?

Completely depends on your option on 'best'. But in terms of pay it is military hardware R&D and R&D for a company like Intel, but again it depends on a ton of factors.

> What type of hardware engineers work on processors ?

What part? What is takes to make a modern processor is actually very complicated and has a ton of different engineering to it from material science to computer engineering and computer science.

> What type of hardware engineers work with medical technology?

I actually use to work on medical tech and I also have a Biomedical engineering degree, you don't "need" to if you have a solid other engineering degree but it drastically helps.

> Should I go for my masters in hardware engineering ?

Completely depends on what all you want to do, in engineering a masters isn't nearly as required to make a jump in the field as other majors but if you want to get into the deep R&D field then yes.

> I want to start on the management side of the technology field what degrees would help me get at the top of management after college ?

Define "management" because if you just mean things like 'lead developer' and so on then just your the same major with some years of experience.

> Are there any classes that I could watch for free to get ahead in my courses ?

Code academy and various tech talks are good. CMU, MIT, and a few others put up various resources for their programming and computer science classes online.

> What are important coding languages I must learn ?

OH BOY, people fixate WAY to hard on this and honestly one of the biggest ways to "tank". There are for sure 'useful' programming languages that many companies are hiring for but it is much more important to know HOW and WHY programming languages work because it makes it easier to pick up a ton on the fly.

Beyond that one of the "best" starting programming languages to learn is Python. Once you comfortable with that then work with C/C++ and then brush up on how assembly works.

> Are there any math courses that will prep me for the field?

Discrete mathematics is the foundation of modern computer science and one of the biggest things that differentiate candidates I interview.

> Any books that I could read on a daily basses regarding the field ?

This is my 'default' starting book for those interested in the field but might not fully know enough for higher level topics.

Short answer: DO NOT expect to be instantly jumping in to working with some 'really cool shit'. Heck you shouldn't even be really thinking of actual computers and hardware for awhile and learn just how important and how deep the "True Math" we had was.

I read a lot of these as a neurophysiologist on my way to transitioning into an ML career! My favorites (which aren’t already listed by others here) are Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths and How to Make a Mind by Ray Kurzweil. While it’s a bit tangential, I also loved The Smarter Screen by Jonah Lehrer and Shlomo Benartzi, which deals with human-computer interaction.

Have you read this book?

https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions/dp/1627790365

I would also recommend this book Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

It talks about how our mind work when comes to decision making and it can actually helps you make a better decision.

No worries, just making sure it's the right book. This one, right?

Nevertheless, thanks for the recommendation!

You have discovered the explore/exploit dilemma, also known as the multi-armed bandit problem. Should you search for new things you on the chance you will like them, or continue to listen to the things you know you like?

I do the same thing with Spotify. I have a large list of "saved" music on there that I often come back to and shuffle when I need something familiar. But every so often I like to branch out and find something new, either with the weekly discover playlists, or by going to a song I like and playing the rest of that artist's songs or switching to radio mode so it will suggest more. With this method I gradually build up more songs for my list. Also every so often I remember a song I like and search for it, and then I can explore that artist's other songs. But the vast majority of the time I want the sure thing, so I go to my saved songs list and hit shuffle.

Btw, I learned about the multi-armed bandit problem from the book Algorithms to Live By.

Algorithms to Live By is a new 2017 book, but it explains data structures that even a kindergartener could understand. It isn't a thorough deep-dive into computer science, but it compares real life problems to computer science problems. The author speaks in plain english and some of the scenarios he brings up are damn interesting.

You are wrong, the only books to learn Java foundation is core Java..
Of course, you should read some books about algorithms but not necessarily related to Java,
I recommend
Algorithms to live

Also I don't think the book effective Java should be read at the beginning.. because this book is used to tidying up your knowledge....
The value of studying a CS program is they are not only programming, the more they are doing problem solving by building large project rather than continually doing exercises in books.

The books you have read are quite enough, just start building something..

I really liked the algorithms to live by book. Not heavy on the math, very approachable. I personally think it should be required reading for any CS50.

https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions/dp/1627790365

I don't have any links about it but it's a pretty well known thing: the stopping problem. A quick google will give you lots of resources!

The book is on amazon! book link

You may want to check out Algorithms to Live by.

It goes into practical examples of complex problems that mathematicians and programmers have solved. It reads somewhat like a philosophy book if that will help you.