Bad Choices

Algorithms – processes that are made up of unambiguous steps and do something useful – make up the very foundations of computer science. Yet, they also inform our choices in approaching everyday tasks, from managing a pile of clothes fresh out of the dryer to deciding what music to listen to.

Ali Almossawi, the genius behind cult hit The Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, wants to show you how:
Matching socks can teach you about search and hash tables
Planning trips to the store can demonstrate the value of stacks
Deciding what music to listen to shows why link analysis is all-important
Crafting a succinct Tweet draws on ideas from compression
Making your way through a grocery list helps explain priority queues and traversing graphs

Covering everything from maze-solving in Ancient Greece to the Two Ronnies, and from rapping in supermarkets to how Facebook predicts your likes, in opening algorithmic thinking to all readers Bad Choices shows you how to choose far better.