With, “Bad Arguments,” I spent a month pouring close to $5,000 into advertising for that project with moderate results. And to get that first spark, a person who is connected to the largest number of people who are likely to engage with that post, needs to share it. Again, if we think of it in terms that are relevant to algorithms, we’d say that the challenge with making something go viral is really getting that first spark. I’ve posted things on social media that have died a sad death and then posted the same thing at a later date that somehow did great. What are the secret ingredients of a successful Facebook post? Tag your photos, engage with users who tag their photos with the same hashtags, and you should be on your way to stardom. You mention Instagram: There, the hashtag is one way to enter that ball of links. It’s much easier to get to people whom you might be interested in and who might be interested in you if you can start within the ball of links that connects those people, rather than starting at a random spot. The concept of links and networks, which I cover in Chapter 6, is relevant here. For instance, what is the most efficient way for a machine to store a prioritized list, and what happens when the equivalent of you scratching an item from a list happens in the machine’s list? How is a store analogous to a graph (an abstraction in computer science and mathematics that defines how things are connected), and how is navigating the aisles in a store analogous to traversing a graph? Nobody follows me on Instagram. How do you prioritize things on your list? Order the items in a way that allows you to avoid walking down the same aisles twice.įor me, the intriguing thing is that the grocery store is a scene from everyday life that I can use as a launch pad to talk about various related topics, like priority queues and graphs and hashing. What do I do?ĭo you know what the grocery store looks like ahead of time? If you know what it looks like, it determines your list. I’m going to the grocery store and only have 15 minutes. Two, anyone who is already familiar with the field and wants to experience a way of explaining some of the fundamental concepts in computer science differently than how they’re taught. One, anyone, be it a learner or an educator, who is interested in computer science and wants an engaging and lighthearted, but not a dumbed-down, introduction to the field. I wrote the book with two audiences in mind. These activities can be mapped to one or more fundamental algorithms, which form the basis for the field of computing and have far-reaching applications and uses. I take algorithms and put them in a scene from everyday life, such as matching socks from a pile, putting books on a shelf, remembering things, driving from one point to another, or cutting an onion. My approach to making algorithms compelling was focusing on comparisons. Why did you write this book, and who can benefit from it?Īll the books I came across that tried to introduce computer science involved coding. Note the mention of “deciding between.” Computer scientists do that all the time, and I was convinced that the tools they use to evaluate competing algorithms would be of interest to a broad audience. Algorithmic thinking is taking a step back and asking, “If it’s the case that algorithms are so useful in computing to achieve predictability, might they also be useful in everyday life, when it comes to, say, deciding between alternative ways of solving a problem or completing a task?” In all cases, we optimize for efficiency: We care about time or space.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |