Once Upon an algorithm
"Picture a computer scientist, staring at a screen and clicking away frantically on a keyboard, hacking into a system, or perhaps developing an app. Now delete that picture. In Once Upon an Algorithm, Martin Erwig explains computation as something that takes place beyond electronic computers, and computer science as the study of systematic problem solving. Erwig points out that many daily activities involve problem solving. Getting up in the morning, for example: You get up, take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast. This simple daily routine solves a recurring problem through a series of well-defined steps. In computer science, such a routine is called an algorithm. Erwig illustrates a series of concepts in computing with examples from daily life and familiar stories. Hansel and Gretel, for example, execute an algorithm to get home from the forest. The movie Groundhog Day illustrates the problem of unsolvability; Sherlock Holmes manipulates data structures when solving a crime; the magic in Harry Potter's world is understood through types and abstraction; and Indiana Jones demonstrates the complexity of searching. Along the way, Erwig also discusses representations and different ways to organize data; "intractable" problems; language, syntax, and ambiguity; control structures, loops, and the halting problem; different forms of recursion; and rules for finding errors in algorithms. This engaging book explains computation accessibly and shows its relevance to daily life.
Stats for nerds
1recommend
2mentions
2people
2022–2023years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- What's the story angle/line/tanent/"e"/"pi"/etc.? (linear algegra, Lewis Carol math, Claud, Shannon, etc. ) -- Physical reminder/context for why 'booked ticket to get punched'?
Target audience? -- is journey a story in which 'instructions/learning' are actions used to get the reader to partake in story? aka humanities novel as wrapper to 70's wall of documentation volumes.
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> Should I just focus on creating the content and making sure it’s useful/valuable and treat the book as just another method of presentation?
Is this for a 'Go Forth' TeD book of the month talk?
Any further clarification on type theory / category background? (cs, art, architecture, fonts, LaTex, ascii, utf, ...)
"The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Practices to Engage and Empower All Learners" by Ron Ritchhart (Author), Mark Church (Author)
"The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. (Author), E. B. White (Author)
"Thinking with Type: Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students Paperback" by Ellen Lupton
"Unleash the Power of Storytelling: Win Hearts, Change Minds, Get Results" by Rob Biesenbach
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> ... book just a nice to have thing? Wide variety of catecorical/topi types.
Physicall book can be less expensive / less hassel than mangaging drmo on elecronic tablet/format only to have reference auto-erased. Dont have to worry about battery leaking/exploding. Thankfully, electronic formats allow for circumventing the imaginary wierd mechanics of trying to carry around wall's worth of pearls within multiple physical book encylopedia volumes without spending one's life working out at gym to be able to effortlessly carry/handle the encylopedia volume(s).
Categorical/Topi 'sea' type stuff:
"Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carol;
"Alice in Puzzle-Land: A Carrollian Tale for Children Under Eighty" by Raymond M. Smullyan
"To Mock a Mockingbird" by Raymond Smullyan;
"The New Turing Omnibus: Sixty-Six Excursions in Computer Science" by A.K. Dewdney
"Once Upon an Algorithm: How Stories Explain Computing" by Martin Erwig
"The Annotated Gödel: A Reader's Guide to his Classic Paper on Logic and Incompleteness Paperback" by Hal Prince (Author)
"Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas R Hofstadter
"Information Theory: A Tutorial Introduction (2nd Edition)" by James V Stone
"An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise" Subsequent Edition by John R. Pierce
"Coding the Matrix: Linear Algebra through Applications to Computer Science" by Philip N. Klein
"Land of Lisp: Learn to Program in Lisp, One Game at a Time!" by Conrad Barski M.D.
"Build Your Own Lisp" by Mr Daniel Holden
"LISP IS MY FAVORITE LANGUAGE IN LIFE FOUR MONTHS TO LEARN: Funny beginner's noteook to Learn LISP Programming Step-by-Step(PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE)"
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- Similar book that I meant to read:
Once Upon An Algorithm, By Martin Erwig https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262545297/once-upon-an-algorith...
Wonder if anyone has read it and has thoughts.
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