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Bad Choices: How Algorithms Can Help You Think Smarter and Live Happier Hardcover – Illustrated, April 4, 2017

by Ali Almossawi (Author)

4.1 102 ratings

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A relatable, interactive, and funny exploration of algorithms, those essential building blocks of computer science—and of everyday life—from the author of the wildly popular Bad Arguments

Algorithms—processes that are made up of unambiguous steps and do something useful—make up the very foundations of computer science. But 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.

With Bad Choices, Ali Almossawi presents twelve scenes from everyday life that help demonstrate and demystify the fundamental algorithms that drive computer science, bringing these seemingly elusive concepts into the understandable realms of the everyday.

Readers will discover 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
   • And more

As you better understand algorithms, you’ll also discover what makes a method faster and more efficient, helping you become a more nimble, creative problem-solver, ready to face new challenges. Bad Choices will open the world of algorithms to all readers, making this a perennial go-to for fans of quirky, accessible science books.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Ali Almossawi’s BAD CHOICES

“One of the more clever ways of introducing computational thinking to the general public.”
—Vint Cerf, Turing Award winner, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, a “Father of the Internet”

“Perfect for anyone wanting to understand the basics of Computer Science.”
—Cesar Hidalgo, Director of the Collective Learning group at the MIT Media Lab

“What I appreciated most was how the book became a survey of things I take for granted every day, shining a light on these algorithms and showing me different ways to think about and consider them.”
—Jamis Buck, author of Mazes for Programmers

“Almossawi picks everyday tasks like sorting socks, discovering new music, and writing witty status updates and examines the most efficient ways to achieve them. Each short chapter, mercifully barren of headache-inducing formulas, spotlights different computer-science concepts that can be put to use ineach situation, like context switching and linearithmic time.... Anyone with a high-school-level understanding of math or a penchant for logicpuzzles will appreciate this easily digestible primer on how little choices can make a big difference.”
—Booklist

Praise for Ali Almossawi’s BAD ARGUMENTS

"A very good book every scientist should have. Every scholar really."
—Hope Jahren, author of Lab Girl

“Seriously, An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments should be on every school curriculum. Twitter will be a more civil place.”
—Buzzfeed

“A great primer for anyone looking to understand logical fallacies and become a better debater. It helps that each logical fallacy is accompanied by a comic featuring a funny animal... Check it out and pass it along to all the arguers—good and bad—in your life.”
—io9

“Now more than ever, you need this illustrated guide to bad arguments, faulty logic, and silly rhetoric.”
—Fast Company

“Need a great coffee table book that looks like a kid’s book but will teach everyone around you to think more critically? This is the book. Share with your friends. Encourage your family members to flip through it. Casually leave copies in public places.”
—GeekDad

“Wonderfully digestible . . . I can’t think of a better way to be taught or reintroduced to these fundamental notions of logical discourse. A delightful little book.”
—Aaron Koblin, creative director, Google’s Data Arts team

“I love this illustrated book of bad arguments. A flawless compendium of flaws.”
—Alice Roberts, PhD, anatomist, writer, and presenter of The Incredible Human Journey

“Bad arguments, great illustrations . . . gorgeous.”
—Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net

“[A] handsome newcomer’s guide to the world of logic . . . Almossawi and his McSweeney’s-ready artist Giraldo accessibly tackle such classic subjects as circular reasoning, false dilemma, straw man, appeal to ignorance, and genetic fallacy . . . An attractive, substantive read.”
—John Wenzel, Denver Post blog

About the Author

Ali Almossawi is the creator and maintainer of An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, which has been read by 2.4 million readers and translated into 17 languages, 11 of which were done by volunteers from across the world. Almossawi formerly worked on the Firefox team at Mozilla and is an alumnus of MIT's System Design and Management program and Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science. Previous stints included working as a research associate at Harvard and as a collaborator with the MIT Media Lab.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking; Illustrated edition (April 4, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0735222126
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735222120
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.37 x 0.68 x 9.26 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,518 in Business & Professional Humor
- #2,532 in Business Decision Making
- #11,685 in Fiction Satire

Customer Reviews:
4.1 102 ratings

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Ali Almossawi

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Ali Almossawi is the author of An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language, Bad Choices: An Illustrated Introduction to Computational Thinking, and The Point of Pointless Work. His books have reached by 3.5 million readers, translated into 22 languages, and have sold over a quarter of a million copies in print. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter.

He regularly posts on critical thinking at:

almossawi.substack.com

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Customers find the book easy to read and well-organized. They appreciate the witty and quirky illustrations throughout. The book explains important concepts in an accessible way, making it an enjoyable primer on data structures.

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10 customers mention "Readability"7 positive3 negative

Customers find the book easy to read with clear explanations. They appreciate the witty and quirky illustrations, as well as the helpful graphics that explain tricky concepts clearly.

"...size - this is a concept that often evades newcomers but it is laid out very clearly along with excellent illustrations in this book...." Read more

"...The illustrations are fun and quirky throughout, and the approach of showing just a couple of approaches is highly effective...." Read more

"Fun, quirky, and a good first intro to computer science. Not useful as a standalone intro, perhaps, but a great resource to have with other books on..." Read more

"...Al Almossawi has written some really good books and this one is no different...." Read more

8 customers mention "Enlightened reader"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the book helpful for explaining computer science concepts in a clear and understandable way. They find it an easy read that covers interesting topics well and provides an excellent introduction to key ideas. Readers describe it as an enjoyable primer on data structures and a great resource to have with other books on the subject.

"...any particular algorithm in computer code, but it does elucidate the thought process behind solving some complex problems in a novice-friendly way...." Read more

"...It explains important concepts in approachable ways!" In both cases, I'm hesitant to give that recommendation...." Read more

"...I admire this book and would recommend to anybody who is a serious learner and thinker." Read more

"It is a good fundamental book to understand sorting and transversing methods using real world problems, could be useful to get a grasp on how to..." Read more

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D
An excellent introduction to many of the key ideas in computer science
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2017
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The book presents various important topics from computer science through the lens of (albeit sometimes somewhat contrived) real-world problems. This book will not make the reader an expert in algorithms or teach them how to actually implement any particular algorithm in computer code, but it does elucidate the thought process behind solving some complex problems in a novice-friendly way. I especially like the emphasis the author puts on studying the performance of solutions as a function of input size - this is a concept that often evades newcomers but it is laid out very clearly along with excellent illustrations in this book. I strongly recommend this book for an interested amateur or for any student taking a beginning course in computer science that wants some supplementary exposure to many of the key ideas in the subject. I am planning on using this book as a required supplementary reading material for my AP Computer Science Principles class next year, several of the chapters fit perfectly along with the curriculum for that course.

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10 people found this helpful

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Glenn A. Crocker
Good book, covers interesting concepts well, but is perhaps not perfect for folks completely new to algorithms
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2017
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Like his previous book, Almossawi has a great idea for an approachable take on a complex topic but slightly misses the mark. The algorithmic concepts covered in Bad Choices are appropriate, but the emphasis is often more appropriate for computer science graduates than for what I think is the target audience. Use of log-log graphs is a reasonably good idea but makes all of the graphs confusing if you miss the single footnote where it's mentioned but not explained.

Some of the stories (the necklace for describing linked lists) make a certain amount of sense but would have been much improved with easy changes. Some graphics (the hash table, some of the sorting) are utterly confusing unless you already know exactly what's going on.

Other chapters are really well done (mazes), and many of the graphics explain tricky concepts very well (musical influences). The illustrations are fun and quirky throughout, and the approach of showing just a couple of approaches is highly effective.

My hope with both of Almossawi's books was to be able to hand them to my 13 and 16 year old children and say, "Read this! It explains important concepts in approachable ways!" In both cases, I'm hesitant to give that recommendation. Perhaps a 2nd Edition of each will come along that addresses these issues. In any case, for Almossawi's THIRD book I hope he has a teenager work as an editor to ensure that the concepts are being covered in ways that people completely new to the concepts will engage with them. Whatever that third book is about, I plan to buy a copy.

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33 people found this helpful

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Christopher L. Kantz
even for me and I think I'm at least somewhat smart having graduated from college with a 3
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2018
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This book was really complicated to read, even for me and I think I'm at least somewhat smart having graduated from college with a 3.6 GPA. You have to commit to the book and go over it a few times to really get out of it what the author intended. Al Almossawi has written some really good books and this one is no different. I took the time to understand the concepts he laid forth in the book and what you put into it is what you get of it. You could just read the book and pretend you understand it, or you could read it and really try to understand it by researching what he has to say. I admire this book and would recommend to anybody who is a serious learner and thinker.

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6 people found this helpful

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Salvador Aceves
Intro to algorithm thinking
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2018
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It is a good fundamental book to understand sorting and transversing methods using real world problems, could be useful to get a grasp on how to thinki behind writing math solving software.

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Dot N.
It does a great job of showing how interesting computer science can be
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2017
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This is a pleasant and witty book. It does a great job of showing how interesting computer science can be, especially to someone like me who doesn’t know much about it. It was especially interesting to me to learn how some of my daily life routines and hacks -that I didn't think much of- could be simplified, conceptualized, and then scaled to make something like computers work. I'm definitely much more motivated to go and learn about algorithms and programming languages now, they feel more attainable after reading the book. Loved it. Five stars.

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4 people found this helpful

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casey scott
good read; plan on some light internet research if you're not a math wiz
Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2017
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Awesome premise; I like this approach of making college level concepts accessible to everyone.

My biggest complaint is that logarithms are a core tenant of this book, but after reading it I still don't
know what they are.

Ali explains mathematical terminology as if this were a brief review for people who already know the
vocabulary, and I wish he would dumb it down a bit and assume ignorance on the audience's part.

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7 people found this helpful

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Dorothy
Enjoyable primer on data structures
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2020
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Fun, quirky, and a good first intro to computer science. Not useful as a standalone intro, perhaps, but a great resource to have with other books on the subject.

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Mission’s Possible
Bad Choice Buying This Book
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2021
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It’s your choice. Unless you’re looking for a rudimentary understanding of computer algorithms don’t bother buying this book.

I would give 5 stars for illustration and aesthetics; 2 stars for attempts at humor.

In my opinion, beyond the intriguing title, this book was a complete waste of money and the time that I lost reading it.

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3 people found this helpful

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Bruce
Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on September 25, 2017
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Fascinating and useful

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Amazon Customer
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2017
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Excellent intro algorithms

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Aravindh
One Star
Reviewed in India on March 21, 2018
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Really not worth it.

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Ross Boardman
Simple thinking about hard problems
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2017
Amazon Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
An algorithm is a pre-defined process that can be repeated for the same result. The effort in the decision making is in the design of the algorithm not in the execution. If you ever sort a column of numbers in a spreadsheet, work out how to pack a suitcase or the order in which you get dressed then you have used an algorithm. There are very complicated ones in encryption or medicine which come up with the same answer given the same data.

This book is an excellent ex-plainer of algorithms. You could spend months diving into some very complicated science but you don;t need to. Working out musical influences, sorting post, pairing socks or even getting from one place to another are all well dealt with. Each comes with a story and alternative processes for getting to the answer. The book is fun, clearly written and informative. There are some excellent references to research if you want to dive deeper.

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AmazonCustomer
great choice!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2018
Amazon Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
A witty and engaging introduction to this element of computer science. Algorithms are all around us and it's great to be able to understand a bit more about us and how they effect and influence us in all manner of ways. It's a great way to start learning this subject because computer science can be daunting and a bit formal and imposing.

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Bad Choices: How Algorithms Can Help You Think Smarter and Live Happier Hardcover – Illustrated, April 4, 2017

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5.0 out of 5 stars Simple thinking about hard problems

5.0 out of 5 stars great choice!

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Simple thinking about hard problems

great choice!