Understanding Algorithms: How they shape your daily experience

Today we’re going to dive into what an algorithm is, how they shape what you experience, and why they’re so important!

First — what is an algorithm?

At its most basic level an algorithm is a proven method to solve a problem. They stem from mathematical ways to solve logic problems. There’s a bunch of basic ones out there, that are used for basic operations like sorting data, searching through data, finding connections and distances between items, and creating and searching through hierarchies.

Central to most algorithms are data structures — essentially, concrete and abstract representations of the format of the underlying data collection.

It’s not as complicated as you might think — some are definitely more complex than others, but the basics include just simple lists of items, tabular formatted data like in excel, and complicated structures that have distances and connections to different nodes.

If this is making your head spin already, that’s normal

Data structures and algorithms are very abstract in their theory and implementations.

A lot of it comes from theories developed from math wizards writing things down on a big old whiteboard. So let’s visualize a basic example to help!

Binary Search (credit — https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/binary-search/)

Above we have an algorithm called binary search, run on a basic list data structure.

We won’t go through all the details of it while your brain is tired, but the above illustration shows the underlying data structure (list) and visualizes all the steps required to run a binary search — where we are just searching for a value within the list of numbers, in an efficient and fast way.

And those are the basics of an algorithm — there are tons out there! But an algorithm generally helps us solve a problem, or use case, using a data structure and a series of steps to bring us to our desired result in a quick enough way.

Who enjoys waiting for websites to load?? Algorithms help with that (and sometimes hurt if they’re not done well!).

Now you mostly know what an algorithm is. How do they affect your daily life??

Mentioned above, algorithms are used for tons of use cases and problems to solve.

Most interactions you have with the internet are curated to you by algorithms.

The theory of different algorithms and data structures have been put to the test more complex, larger scale problems and use cases as time has gone on. Many of these have been used to make operations more efficient, to increase the popularity of products, and to ultimately make companies more money.

Let’s take social media (in general) as an example. This one is super complex and I’m sure you’ve heard about “Instagram algorithms” or something of the like recently.

You and your connections are represented through a data structure known as a graph, that basically denotes you and your connections as “nodes” with connecting lines to note that you are connected. With millions of users, this is basically a huge web of connections and people.

Social media uses that to then store tons of information on you and your connections and analyze that information. Most social media has some sort of ads or news. From the graph data structure, many social media providers have devised algorithms that can tell it which type of ads or news you’re most likely to interact with based on your past interactions and your closest friends interactions.

This has become a controversial subject recently. Firstly, this can create what’s known as an echo chamber — where your opinions are only echoed because you only see things you agree with, because that’s what these algorithms typically favor.

Secondly, people are concerned about the amount of data being kept on them. I won’t go deep into this subject since it has more to do with ethics, but the way these algorithms are devised takes quite a bit of data on not just yourself, but people connected to you and/or people with similar backgrounds and interests.

The best you can do is understand that these algorithms in social media are at play — because of their nature, you’re going to see many things that you agree with and not much that you disagree with. If you want to explore new things or see opposing view points, you’ll need to make more of an effort online.

So when are algorithms good?

Most of what I said above and what you hear in the news leads you to believe that algorithms are nefarious little things that are designed to make you spend money and become angry in an echo chamber.

There are absolutely use cases where they are good!

Algorithms can and have been designed to keep you safe. For example, google maps or Waze have algorithms that will steer you away from potentially unsafe areas during weather emergencies, traffic jams, etc. On top of that, these apps also use the graph structure mentioned above to connect addresses and determine optimal routes.

Smart devices in homes have algorithms designed to make your home more efficient and safer. Smart thermostats have machine learning algorithms to determine optimal temperature settings based on past usage, local usage of neighbors who have the same device, and current weather conditions.

Even cars have slowly become smarter with algorithms to determine when something is going wrong, or potentially will go wrong and alert the driver. Even traffic lights use algorithms (albeit, not always good ones, so I don’t know if this is a positive!) to determine optimal timing.

Banks use algorithms to make determinations on credit card fraud or other fraudulent transactions so that these can be caught easily and early on to save you headaches.

How does knowing about algorithms make a difference for me?

In your daily life, you really don’t notice algorithms at play. But understanding that they exist in certain places can help you make more informed decisions. Whether that’s on social media, or dealing with the news — if you’re trying to make a more informed decision based on something you have seen, you might want to spend more time validating that and teaching yourself due to the nature of these algorithms.

When it comes to your professional life, algorithmic approaches to problems can certainly give you a leg up. I’d certainly recommend to anyone in an analytical role to spend more time scratching the surface of approaching certain problems. It can only make you better at what you do.

And for anyone who wants to change careers, or add programming to their skillset in their current role, algorithms are a basic component of programming! Keep an eye out for algorithm courses and deeper dives in the future on The Sunday Technologist (https://sunday-technologist.beehiiv.com/)!

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