3 ways to make better decisions -- by thinking like a computer
4,274,145 views |
Tom Griffiths |
TEDxSydney
• June 2017
If you ever struggle to make decisions, here's a talk for you. Cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths shows how we can apply the logic of computers to untangle tricky human problems, sharing three practical strategies for making better decisions -- on everything from finding a home to choosing which restaurant to go to tonight.
If you ever struggle to make decisions, here's a talk for you. Cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths shows how we can apply the logic of computers to untangle tricky human problems, sharing three practical strategies for making better decisions -- on everything from finding a home to choosing which restaurant to go to tonight.
This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxSydney, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Read more about TEDx.About the speaker
Tom Griffiths uses ideas from computer science to understand how human minds work.
Brian Christian | Anchor, 2012 | Book
One concern I sometimes hear is that recognizing the parallels between people and computers might start to rob us of our humanity. Christian's first book, The Most Human Human, is the perfect antidote to that. Participating in a Turing test, where he had to convince the judges that he was not a computer, led Christian to reflect on how intelligent machines can help us come to recognize what it is that makes us human.
Alison Gopnik | Picador, 2017 | Book
One of the big ideas in the talk is that understanding the trade-off between exploration and exploitation can help us understand how our approach to decision-making should change as we age. Alison Gopnik's wonderful book explores this idea in more detail, making the argument that the very structure of human childhood is in part a consequence of navigating this trade-off.
Laura Carstensen | PublicAffairs, 2011 | Book
At the other end of the life span, Laura Carstensen tells us why we should be optimistic about old age.
Thomas H. Cormen | The MIT Press, 2013 | Book
For people who want to learn more about algorithms, this book does a great job of translating an undergraduate curriculum in computer science into a form that somebody with a little bit of mathematical background can easily appreciate.
William J. Cook | Princeton University Press, 2014 | Book
Focusing on one problem in particular, this book is a great illustration of how computer scientists tackle the hardest computational problems — using approximations, shortcuts and a lot of ingenuity.
James Carse | Free Press, 2013 | Book
An inspiration for Algorithms to Live By, this book takes a single mathematical idea and then unpacks it into a manual for living a fulfilling life.
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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxSydney, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
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