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Books

Algorithms to Live By

Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths · 2017 · 366 pages

2 people have this book on the record — 1 of 2 verdicts positive. The dissent stays on the page.

The bar next to each date shows how long ago it was said: 6d is days, 4yr is years.

Rakhim Davletkaliyev read it
One of the few books that successfully brings CS into everyday life. We need more books like this. An audiobook is also available, but this one is better on paper.

on rakhim.org · 16 Aug 2026

Kevin Simler loved it
I wanted to hate this book. I expected it to be a vapid popularization of trivial ideas from computer science. Mostly, I was jealous that the authors had identified such a great idea for a book, and I was hoping they would botch the job. Buuuuut they didn't. The book was great.

on meltingasphalt.com

Find it on Open Library →  ·  This book on rcmnd →

That little bar

It says how long ago something was said, so you can tell last month from 2014 without doing the arithmetic. Full and green is recent; it drains and cools as the date gets older, and empties completely at about 6 years.

A striped bar means the date itself is an estimate — the source did not carry an exact one. An entry with no date at all gets no bar.