#38 Ali Almossawi: Thinking in Algorithms

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

My guest for this short episode of The Knowledge Project is a man who wears many hats.

Ali Almossawi is a San Francisco-based author of books on critical thinking and computer science education, and the creator of An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments. He is also a principal engineer at Apple and was formerly employed as a data visualization engineer by Mozilla.

His books have been read by 3 million readers, translated into 20 languages, and have sold over a quarter million copies in print.

This interview is only 20 minutes along, but there was a lot I wanted to cover, so we move pretty fast. Specifically, we cover:

• The unique format Ali chooses when writing a book to help people understand the concepts more deeply
• The place for empathy in algorithmic thinking and how we can be more empathetic in our daily interactions with each other
• Ali’s note taking process and how he tracks the ideas and topics he’d like to explore
• Ali’s daily routine and the “algorithms” he uses to make the most of his day
• The single habit that has the most profound impact on Ali’s day to day
• The cost/benefit of sharing on social media and the impact it has on society as a whole

And more.

If you’ve ever wanted to improve the way you process information, think more clearly and make better decisions, you won’t want to miss this interview.

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