In the Summer 2020 issue I reviewed Ali Almossawi’s first book, in its online and print editions, Bad Arguments. That was a book about logic and logical fallacies, a subject that is always timely. It led me to his second book, Bad Choices, about algorithms and how we can use them in daily life. This serves two purposes. The superficial goal is to show how algorithmic thinking can make ordinary tasks more efficient and effective. But the real goal, more subtle and subversive, is to show that the concepts of programming and computation aren’t as abstract and alien as they seem when presented in the classroom. We use algorithms every day, and, with just a little attention paid, we can see how pretty much all computation matches problem-solving activities from everyday life.
