Audiobook
Non fiction
The following is a summary of those who may not get time to read or listen to the book and a brief for those who do! No spoilers!
The book starts with the issues of selection in many situations. Whether you select the first one or wait and watch for a better option to come. The same thing is also the secretary problem since in a list of potential people who turn up for the job, you may not go with the first one but then which number do you stop!?
Searching for an apartment in a busy city and the rat race to find it!
In both these situations, the author tells us about 37 percent!
Use only 37 percent of your allocated time to research and get the first one or immediate one after that!
You can use similar algorithms in every aspect!
Before it was used on computers, it was used in Humans! Finite sequence of steps used to solve a problem
History of the word algorithm and based on some Persian mathematician! The term algorithm derives from the name of Muhammad ibn Mūsā al’Khwārizmī, a ninth-century Persian mathematician. His latinized name, Algoritmi, meant “the decimal number system” and was used in this meaning for centuries!
Quotes Carl Sagan! Science is a way of thinking and not just a body of knowledge!
Like the book do not think by Joseph Nguyen; he also says not to think and trust your instinct!
The secretary problem demonstrates a scenario involving optimal stopping theory that is studied extensively in the fields of applied probability, statistics, and decision theory. It is also known as the marriage problem, the sultan’s dowry problem, the fussy suitor problem, the googol game, and the best choice problem. Its solution is also known as the 37% rule!
Merrill Meeks Flood (1908 – 1991) was an American mathematician, notable for developing, with Melvin Dresher, the basis of the game theoretical Prisoner’s dilemma model of cooperation and conflict while being at RAND in 1950. Albert W. Tucker gave the game its prison-sentence interpretation, and thus the name by which it is known today!
The book also tells an interesting story of a famous scientist who used the selection method and pros and cons to select his second wife! Successfully!
Exploration and exploitation more or less the same! In both the essence is to investigate or dig further to get your job done!
The authors tell how it is better to try and fail rather than fail to try!
They talk about the card sorting machine which was actually invented for census because the whole process was long and cumbersome. The Holoret machine for census which later became IBM card sorting machine and finally gave rise to proper computers! The history described in very interesting!
So the card sorting is essentially getting an order to make the things simple and successful. Sorting is making order; doing laundry properly as the author say!
They talk about computer terminologies like Big O notation, Bubble sort, Comparison counting sort, Ping attack and most importantly Cache which is the key word! How these influence the routine has been described.
Look and leap! Take your chance after a period of thought and then do not procrastinate! But is that the deal always!
The authors introduced a new term which is almost as bad as Procrastinate which is in fact almost the opposite meaning! So this is the act of completing tasks as soon as possible even if it costs extra effort or the quality of the outcome deteriorates! Some people may use this approach in order to avoid the anxiety and stress of last-minute work! In some areas this faster but inefficient completion of work is actually considered an unhealthy behavior pattern and is accompanied by symptoms such as conscientiousness, eagerness to please, and high energy!
The word is Precrastinate!
Different types of auction are described like the Dutch, English or Vikry (Do not know the proper spelling because I only heard it!) auction! Of course in most auctions you give the deal to the most cheapest or the highest bid! But then that does not assure the best value! So in Vikry auction, the deal is given to the second best!
They tell about a textbook available in Amazon for some million dollars plus shipping because of some algorithm error! Apparently the algorithm did not know when to stop!
Revelation principle; any game which requires strategically masking the truth can be transformed into a game which requires nothing but simple honesty!
Prisoner’s dilemma! which is a commonly discussed issue and how it’s always better to defect! Same thing on a larger scale in field for grazing!
A similar dilemma which can never have a proper solution is Sitting or table arrangement in a restaurant or parking in a mall!
The authors tell about an interesting thing about an ANT which is infected by a parasite and climbs a mountain so that it can be picked up by a bird which is the final destination of the parasite! Similarly how Toxoplasmosis makes a rat not be fearful of the cat! Because the final destination of Toxoplasmosis is the cat gut!
All in all a very interesting book on life and how many actions are algorithmically derived! The final parts of the book end with moral and statements of positivity like Be kinder to others and be kinder to yourself or how life is too complicated and the fact that these aren’t the concessions we make for being rational but that’s what being rational means!
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