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Latest Read: Grokking Algorithms

Grokking Algorithms: An Illustrated Guide For Programmers and Other Curious People by Aditya Y. Bhargava. Aditya is an Engineering Manager at Etsy. He blogs at adit.io.

Grokking Algorithms

This is not a book for seasoned programmers. However, this is certainly a wonderful book to learn the basics of algorithms.

Grokking Algorithms provides an illustrated overview of algorithms which certainly provides a foundation to common algorithms used everyday by programmers.

For anyone interested in learning the basic structures of algorithms, Aditya also provides code samples in Python. In addition, the programming community has shared java versions of the book on Github.

On the surface, everyone learning about various algorithm options will not secure a programming job in their short term future.

However, I feel it is very fair to say many readers interested in learning about algorithms will not be overwhelmed.

If you are interested in learning to code, then this book is required reading. There are 400 illustrations within Aditya’s 256 page book. easy-peasy. The 256 page count is not lost on me.

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Artificial Intelligence Education Google Network Reading Technology

Latest Read: Algorithms of Oppression

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
by Safiya Umoja Noble. Safiya is an associate professor at UCLA and is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. Safiya’s research as a result, considers how bias has been embedded into search engines.

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble

Clearly, search engine algorithms are not neutral by any means. This was indeed proving to be a very disturbing issue at the time of publication in 2018.

So, how did this happen in the first place? It is rather shocking to understand that a seemingly simple search term “black girls” results in such disgusting results.

Safiya certainly reveals this unforgiving gap and Google has made efforts to fix their errors. The result of her work has brought about the term algorithmic oppression.

Safiya explores how racism, especially anti-blackness, is generated and maintained across the internet, yet is focused squarely on Google.

In addition, Safiya reveals the impact of AdWords, Google’s advertising tool. I found it interesting that since search results are altered by paid advertising, Google is more of an advertising company than a search engine company.

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Education Globalization Google Innovation Network Reading Technology

Latest Read: Algorithms To Live By

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths. Brian is the author of The Most Human Human, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, New York Times editors’ choice, and New Yorker favorite book of the year. Tom is a professor of psychology and cognitive science at Princeton University. In addition, he directs the Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences.

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths

At first glance the idea of brining algorithms into our daily lives seems a bit too much, even for a budding computer nerd. At the same time, Brian and Tom prove that most of us are already doing this daily.

I recall spending many hours programming SQL while living in Chicago and realizing how much more efficient my grocery shopping would be if I actually transformed my shopping list into a SQL table:

SELECT * FROM FoodGroup
ORDER BY GroceryStoreIsle;

So I can certainly agree. Yet this idea still may seem daunting. If you begin thinking about repeating tasks you perform, even laundry should certainly make you believe there is a better way.

Algorithms will certainly make this possible. Therefore, you may be spending too much time repeating tasks. This is where the book reveals how you can become efficient, by sharing the history and development of many common algorithms. You will certainly discover a few frameworks.

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Cloud Design Education Google Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Coders

Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World by Clive Thompson. Clive writes for the New York Times Magazine, Wired, and The Smithsonian. This book is in fact, a very comprehensive review of computer programming.

Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World by Clive Thompson

In addition to tracing historical developments, Clive is addressing the origins of computer programming, artificial intelligence, and college computer science programs, and concludes with new coding companies that have entered the market including the Flatiron School.

However, Clive provides an honest and deep analysis about how programmers live, including the evolving demands required to succeed long term. Coding is not an easy career choice.

For this reason, it is challenging for women and minorities to land full time coder jobs. At the same time, everyone not attending a handful of elite universities to study computer engineering (Stanford, MIT, or Harvard) career opportunities at top flight companies remain challenging.

Yet for today’s gig economy worker, this book is an especially worthy read. Parents working will gain a better understanding of potential career paths for their children. Above all, if you have a daughter, Coders is mandatory reading. While his opening chapters reinforced the key role woman held in the launch of computing machines, it is now an uphill battle.

The Software Update That Changed Reality

Clive begins Chapter 1 The Software Update That Changed Reality with Facebook’s Ruchi Sanghvi authoring their initial newsfeed feature. There is a good view of how Ruchi faced challenges as a woman at Facebook. She then left to start Cove, later acquired by Dropbox.

Many will also appreciate the origin of ‘Hello World’ and to learn exactly what is a “bug” in software and the precision required that makes software execute flawlessly. This is a good chapter for any non-programmer parent.

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Artificial Intelligence Education Google Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence

A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going by Michael Wooldridge. Michael is Head of Department of Computer Science and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford.

A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence Michal Wooldridge

Is artificial intelligence intimidating to you? Above all this is a very easy, enjoyable book. So, Michael states in his introduction “I’m writing a popular science introduction to artificial intelligence.”

Accordingly, Michael has researched artificial intelligence for over 30 years. He is focusing on multi-agent systems drawing upon ideas from game theory, logic, computational complexity, and agent-based modeling.

A short history begins with Alan Turing’s work in 1935 at Cambridge during World War II. This is beyond America’s cultural understanding of Turing’s life from the 2014 movie The Imitation Game. Alan Turing actually defined artificial intelligence.

Machine Learning

Chapter 5: Deep Breakthroughs, addresses why Google acquired DeepMind Technologies, a British-based research laboratory in 2014. Founded in September 2010, DeepMind was introducing a term bounced around a lot: Machine Learning.

There is certainly a great misunderstanding regarding machine learning and deep learning. Additionally, Micheal’s efforts are to be complimented in making this topic understandable.

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