-
Once Upon an Algorithm
- How Stories Explain Computing
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $17.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition
- Your Journey to Mastery
- By: David Thomas, Andrew Hunt
- Narrated by: Anna Katarina
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt wrote the first edition of this influential book in 1999 to help their clients create better software and rediscover the joy of coding. These lessons have helped a generation of programmers examine the very essence of software development. Now, 20 years later, this new edition re-examines what it means to be a modern programmer. Topics range from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse.
-
-
Exquisitely narrated. Not a great text.
- By Phil on 05-26-20
By: David Thomas, and others
-
Grokking Algorithms
- By: Aditya Bhargava
- Narrated by: Derek Lettman
- Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This friendly guide teaches you how to apply common algorithms to the practical problems you face every day as a programmer. You'll start with sorting and searching and, as you build up your skills in thinking algorithmically, you'll tackle more complex concerns such as data compression and artificial intelligence. This accesible introduction is suitable for self-taught programmers, engineers, or anyone who wants to brush up on algorithms. Each carefully presented example includes helpful diagrams and fully annotated code samples in Python.
-
-
the book is not good in audio format
- By Anonymous User on 01-09-20
By: Aditya Bhargava
-
Advanced Algorithms and Data Structures
- By: Marcello La Rocca
- Narrated by: Julie Brierley
- Length: 23 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a software engineer, you’ll encounter countless programming challenges that initially seem confusing, difficult, or even impossible. Don’t despair! Many of these “new” problems already have well-established solutions. Advanced Algorithms and Data Structures teaches you powerful approaches to a wide range of tricky coding challenges that you can adapt and apply to your own applications. Providing a balanced blend of classic, advanced, and new algorithms, this practical guide upgrades your programming toolbox with new perspectives and hands-on techniques.
-
-
Wonderful audio textbook!
- By Howard_a on 11-02-21
-
Algorithms to Live By
- The Computer Science of Human Decisions
- By: Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one's inbox to understanding the workings of human memory, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.
-
-
Loved this book!
- By Michael D. Busch on 10-03-16
By: Brian Christian, and others
-
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
- The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems
- By: Martin Kleppmann
- Narrated by: Benjamin Lange
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Martin Kleppmann helps you navigate the diverse data landscape by examining the pros and cons of various technologies for processing and storing data. Software keeps changing, but the fundamental principles remain the same. With this book, software engineers and architects will learn how to apply those ideas in practice, and how to make full use of data in modern applications.
-
-
Superb. Several semesters worth of classes.
- By Eivind Hagen on 03-04-21
By: Martin Kleppmann
-
Clean Code: Best Tips and Tricks in the World of Clean Coding
- By: Elijah Lewis
- Narrated by: Ben Herold
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about clean codes and how to write them. It is also about bad codes and how to clean them up. The dangers of writing messy code are real. Even if they function well now, sooner or later, several hours will be lost trying to figure them out in the nearest or far future. And that's if you are lucky. Dirty code has been known to ruin the entire project and cause the failure of otherwise great products.
-
-
INFORMATIVE BOOK
- By Rashid on 11-07-20
By: Elijah Lewis
-
The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition
- Your Journey to Mastery
- By: David Thomas, Andrew Hunt
- Narrated by: Anna Katarina
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt wrote the first edition of this influential book in 1999 to help their clients create better software and rediscover the joy of coding. These lessons have helped a generation of programmers examine the very essence of software development. Now, 20 years later, this new edition re-examines what it means to be a modern programmer. Topics range from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse.
-
-
Exquisitely narrated. Not a great text.
- By Phil on 05-26-20
By: David Thomas, and others
-
Grokking Algorithms
- By: Aditya Bhargava
- Narrated by: Derek Lettman
- Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This friendly guide teaches you how to apply common algorithms to the practical problems you face every day as a programmer. You'll start with sorting and searching and, as you build up your skills in thinking algorithmically, you'll tackle more complex concerns such as data compression and artificial intelligence. This accesible introduction is suitable for self-taught programmers, engineers, or anyone who wants to brush up on algorithms. Each carefully presented example includes helpful diagrams and fully annotated code samples in Python.
-
-
the book is not good in audio format
- By Anonymous User on 01-09-20
By: Aditya Bhargava
-
Advanced Algorithms and Data Structures
- By: Marcello La Rocca
- Narrated by: Julie Brierley
- Length: 23 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a software engineer, you’ll encounter countless programming challenges that initially seem confusing, difficult, or even impossible. Don’t despair! Many of these “new” problems already have well-established solutions. Advanced Algorithms and Data Structures teaches you powerful approaches to a wide range of tricky coding challenges that you can adapt and apply to your own applications. Providing a balanced blend of classic, advanced, and new algorithms, this practical guide upgrades your programming toolbox with new perspectives and hands-on techniques.
-
-
Wonderful audio textbook!
- By Howard_a on 11-02-21
-
Algorithms to Live By
- The Computer Science of Human Decisions
- By: Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one's inbox to understanding the workings of human memory, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.
-
-
Loved this book!
- By Michael D. Busch on 10-03-16
By: Brian Christian, and others
-
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
- The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems
- By: Martin Kleppmann
- Narrated by: Benjamin Lange
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Martin Kleppmann helps you navigate the diverse data landscape by examining the pros and cons of various technologies for processing and storing data. Software keeps changing, but the fundamental principles remain the same. With this book, software engineers and architects will learn how to apply those ideas in practice, and how to make full use of data in modern applications.
-
-
Superb. Several semesters worth of classes.
- By Eivind Hagen on 03-04-21
By: Martin Kleppmann
-
Clean Code: Best Tips and Tricks in the World of Clean Coding
- By: Elijah Lewis
- Narrated by: Ben Herold
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about clean codes and how to write them. It is also about bad codes and how to clean them up. The dangers of writing messy code are real. Even if they function well now, sooner or later, several hours will be lost trying to figure them out in the nearest or far future. And that's if you are lucky. Dirty code has been known to ruin the entire project and cause the failure of otherwise great products.
-
-
INFORMATIVE BOOK
- By Rashid on 11-07-20
By: Elijah Lewis
-
Machine Learning
- The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Efficiently Learn and Understand Machine Learning, Artificial Neural Network and Data Mining from Beginners to Expert Concepts
- By: Denny Novikov
- Narrated by: Geoff Scott
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are you thinking that as much as we want to look for logical frameworks for intelligence, there is no certainty or scientific proof that intelligence is as structured as we believe it to be? As in the evolutionary process, where chaos and order wisely coexist, I see a research gap related to our brain and mind typically related to focusing on models based solely on order. But if we are researching artificial intelligence, why are we so attached to the order and models that are supposed to be those of our brain?
By: Denny Novikov
-
Clean Architecture
- A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design
- By: Robert C. Martin
- Narrated by: Theodore O'Brien
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clean Architecture is an essential book for every current or aspiring software architect, systems analyst, system designer, and software manager - and for every programmer who must execute someone else’s designs.
-
-
First thing I did after listening this book
- By CJ Rogers on 07-14-21
By: Robert C. Martin
-
Fundamentals of Software Architecture
- An Engineering Approach
- By: Mark Richards, Neal Ford
- Narrated by: Benjamin Lange
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book provides the first comprehensive overview of software architecture’s many aspects. Aspiring and existing architects alike will examine architectural characteristics, architectural patterns, component determination, diagramming and presenting architecture, evolutionary architecture, and many other topics. Mark Richards and Neal Ford - hands-on practitioners who have taught software architecture classes professionally for years - focus on architecture principles that apply across all technology stacks.
-
-
Helpful but business-centric
- By A.N. on 03-25-21
By: Mark Richards, and others
-
Thinking, Fast and Slow
- By: Daniel Kahneman
- Narrated by: Patrick Egan
- Length: 20 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinking. Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains....
-
-
Not on audio
- By Bay Area Girl on 09-25-17
By: Daniel Kahneman
-
Clean Code
- A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
- By: Robert C. Martin
- Narrated by: Theodore O'Brien
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Noted software expert Robert C. Martin presents a revolutionary paradigm with Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Martin has teamed up with his colleagues from Object Mentor to distill their best agile practice of cleaning code “on the fly” into a book that will instill within you the values of a software craftsman and make you a better programmer - but only if you work at it.
-
-
Quick fix needed
- By R L on 05-06-21
By: Robert C. Martin
-
Software Engineering at Google
- Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time
- By: Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, Hyrum Wright
- Narrated by: Mark Sando
- Length: 23 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can software engineers manage a living codebase that evolves and responds to changing requirements and demands over the length of its life? Based on their experience at Google, software engineers Titus Winters and Hyrum Wright, along with technical writer Tom Manshreck, present a candid and insightful look at how some of the world’s leading practitioners construct and maintain software. This book covers Google’s unique engineering culture, processes, and tools and how these aspects contribute to the effectiveness of an engineering organization.
-
-
not useful
- By Andreas Andersen on 07-21-21
By: Titus Winters, and others
-
The Unicorn Project
- A Novel About Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data
- By: Gene Kim
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unicorn Project, we follow Maxine, a senior lead developer and architect, as she is exiled to the Phoenix Project, to the horror of her friends and colleagues, as punishment for contributing to a payroll outage. She tries to survive in what feels like a heartless and uncaring bureaucracy and to work within a system where no one can get anything done without endless committees, paperwork, and approvals. One day, she is approached by a ragtag bunch of misfits who say they want to overthrow the existing order, to liberate developers, to bring joy back to technology work.
-
-
This is no Phoenix Project
- By SaintHax on 01-10-20
By: Gene Kim
-
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Steven Levy
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers - those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks, bent the rules, and pushed the world in a radical new direction. With updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, Hackers is a fascinating story that begins in early computer research labs and leads to the first home computers.
-
-
Remember Why You Got Into Computing
- By Dan Collins on 07-01-16
By: Steven Levy
-
The Soul of a New Machine
- By: Tracy Kidder
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations.
-
-
Reading this book changed my life
- By Timothy Knox on 08-12-16
By: Tracy Kidder
-
Naked Statistics
- Stripping the Dread from the Data
- By: Charles Wheelan
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From batting averages and political polls to game shows and medical research, the real-world application of statistics continues to grow by leaps and bounds. How can we catch schools that cheat on standardized tests? How does Netflix know which movies you'll like? What is causing the rising incidence of autism? As best-selling author Charles Wheelan shows us in Naked Statistics, the right data and a few well-chosen statistical tools can help us answer these questions and more.
-
-
Basic, but very well explained
- By Philo on 05-17-13
By: Charles Wheelan
-
Skin in the Game
- Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one's own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life.
-
-
Brilliance smothered by Condescension and Petty Squabbling
- By Jeremy on 03-11-18
-
Understanding Software
- Max Kanat-Alexander on Simplicity, Coding, and How to Suck Less as a Programmer
- By: Max Kanat-Alexander
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Understanding Software, Max Kanat-Alexander, Technical Lead for Code Health at Google, shows you how to bring simplicity back to computer programming. Max explains to you why programmers suck, and how to suck less as a programmer. There's just too much complex stuff in the world. Complex stuff can't be used, and it breaks too easily. Complexity is stupid. Simplicity is smart.
-
-
I want more books like this on audible
- By Nathaniel C. on 12-13-19
Publisher's Summary
How Hansel and Gretel, Sherlock Holmes, the movie Groundhog Day, Harry Potter, and other familiar stories illustrate the concepts of computing.
Picture a computer scientist, staring at a screen and clicking away frantically on a keyboard, hacking into a system, or perhaps developing an app. Now delete that picture. In Once Upon an Algorithm, Martin Erwig explains computation as something that takes place beyond electronic computers, and computer science as the study of systematic problem solving. Erwig points out that many daily activities involve problem solving. Getting up in the morning, for example: You get up, take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast. This simple daily routine solves a recurring problem through a series of well-defined steps. In computer science, such a routine is called an algorithm.
Erwig illustrates a series of concepts in computing with examples from daily life and familiar stories. Hansel and Gretel, for example, execute an algorithm to get home from the forest. The movie Groundhog Day illustrates the problem of unsolvability; Sherlock Holmes manipulates data structures when solving a crime; the magic in Harry Potter's world is understood through types and abstraction; and Indiana Jones demonstrates the complexity of searching.
Along the way, Erwig also discusses representations and different ways to organize data; "intractable" problems; language, syntax, and ambiguity; control structures, loops, and the halting problem; different forms of recursion; and rules for finding errors in algorithms. This engaging book explains computation accessibly and shows its relevance to daily life. Something to think about next time we execute the algorithm of getting up in the morning.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
More from the same
What listeners say about Once Upon an Algorithm
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jack Frasier
- 08-02-18
didn't quite cut it for me
it seemed like a lot of comparisons with pop culture that fell short of enlightening about computer algorithms. very little was made clearer with the analogies.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David
- 10-07-21
So Many References to “the PDF”
Dear Listener - in producing this audiobook we found that we had to make so many references to the “bonus” PDF that we advise you to simply read the bonus PDF.
Walter Dixon does an excellent job with what must have been an irritating read.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Some Guy
- 08-17-19
Very broad introduction to algorithms, doesn’t explain anything in detail
Doesn’t explain anything in detail. Covers things on a surface level, but I only imagine this being useful for someone who’s never come across the ideas (ie time and space complexity) before.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Paul J Jeffries
- 02-27-19
Very good
Very good, some algorithms you could use to improve some tasks you do e.g. sorting exam scripts if you are a teacher