I agree that thinking algorithmically about things is a part of what divides techies from non-techies, but I think a part of that is what information an algorit

I agree that thinking algorithmically about things is a part of what divides techies from non-techies, but I think a part of that is what information an algorithm has access too. This is what I think the author is saying. With the TiVo example, techies know that the only information available is 1) when the show was recorded and 2) if there is some flag about saving on the show. Take that information, and we quickly come up with the most natural algorithm (FIFO + check "save till" date). I don't think the TiVo example is a good example though. Here, the problem is the data to use exists, but isn't being populated. The example with the picture is better. Think about explaining how google images comes up with pictures. Lots of people think its searching the contents of each image so when you search for "Saddam Hussein" it comes back with pictures of him. In reality, its searching what the author calls "meta data" and just doing it extremely well.