Brian Christian's Algorithms to Live By and Intellect (O5)

Algorithms to Live By, by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, takes the formal problem-solving of computer science and points it at ordinary human decisions, when to stop looking for a parking spot, how to sort your closet, when to try something new versus stick with what works. Its appeal is the surprise that a rigorous idea can hand you a real answer. In an interview on the 80,000 Hours podcast Christian explains, "At one level, computer science can in some cases give you just very explicit advice. Do this, it will succeed this amount of the time." The pleasure of watching an abstract idea illuminate real life is, in the Big Five, one facet.

The pleasure of ideas illuminating life is the Intellect facet

That facet is Intellect (O5), under Openness, how much you enjoy abstract ideas and the work of thinking things through. A high scorer delights in a clean theory that explains something; a low scorer prefers the concrete and practical. The book is O5 catnip, since its whole move is to show that an elegant formula, optimal stopping or the explore-exploit tradeoff, quietly governs a decision you make by gut. Christian and Griffiths are not just teaching better choices; they are savoring how neatly the math fits the mess of daily life.

It is worth distinguishing this from the careful weighing of Cautiousness (C6), the facet that governs how much you deliberate before acting. Algorithms to Live By does touch that, since some of its lessons tell you when to stop deliberating and just decide, but its distinctive pleasure is intellectual rather than practical, the joy of the idea itself. That is why the book delights O5 readers even when they never apply a single algorithm. The elegance is the reward.

For a reader placing themselves, your O5 is a fair read on how much you enjoy abstract ideas and how satisfying you find a theory that clicks. High on it and Algorithms to Live By is a genuine pleasure, a book that makes computer science feel like wisdom. Low on it and it is a practical guide you can raid for its best tips without the philosophy. Where you sit on Intellect tells you how drawn you are to ideas for their own sake, and we take the facet apart in Intellect (O5).

Read the book: Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian.

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