The lives of all of us are subject to spatial and temporal constraints, to binding limits from which a particular kind of problem arises. What should we do or leave unfinished in a day or in our entire lives? How much clutter should we accept? What balance between the new and the familiar offers the greatest satisfaction? Although these dilemmas seem exclusively human, they are not. Computers, like us, have limited space and time, and so computer scientists have grappled with such problems for many decades. And the solutions they have found have much to teach us.

In a fascinating interdisciplinary work, Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths show how the algorithms developed for computers can unravel some distinctly human questions. They explain how to improve our intuition and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with the numerous choices that overwhelm us, and how to connect better with others. From finding a partner to finding a parking spot, from organizing our correspondence to managing our time, the Algorithmic Art of Decision-Making transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for everyday life.