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Did You Hear We Got Osama?

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Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#201

Post by Joeri »

wheels wrote: post #97

This is a topic that I've thought some on in that my company is in the recommendations space, and some thoughts on what make news recommendations difficult: The function of news is to facilitate smalltalk. I am reasonably convinced of this. News, as such, is mostly just something that you're supposed to have read so that you can get by in usual social interactions. What we read (and are supposed to have read) is very…

You underestimate the importance of smalltalk. Gossip is the cornerstone of a moral society, moreso than laws. Gossip forms reputations, and reputations determine who we trust. News is just gossip in the large. Solve the reputation problem, and you solve the gossip problem.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#202

Post by esja »

Tossrock wrote: post #57

Reminds me of the classic Sherlock Holmes quote: "His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composit…

And more recently: "Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain." -- Homer Simpson

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#203

Post by zalew »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #160
zalew wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ditched rss readers a long time ago and refuse to use any service with an 'unread' counter except email.

I actually find RSS extremely useful for keeping up on scientific journals and blogs. For instance, there's no way I'll check every journal that might have papers of interest to me, but if I subscribe then I'll get thirty papers or so every month. If i haven't seen anything of interest in a few issues (or blog posts) then I remove it. I also subscribe to R bloggers, stats.stackexchange.com and the R tag on Stackoverf…

could you link me those sci journals and blogs? they'll be useful for a side project I'm working on.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#204

Post by celoyd »

rsanchez1 wrote: post #130
celoyd wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh? What’s the fault in the thinking? I think it’s not a problem in the utility equation for an individual voter, it’s a problem in the system. By definition, a vote in a non-swing state is insignificant. Empirically, a good showing for a third-party candidate has no significant effect on the political discourse, and your individual share of giving that candidate a strong showing is negligible. Voting in the US is ba…

It's only badly broken because voters don't participate in the process. The US political system only works when you have an engaged, educated citizenry actively shaping government. Cynicism about one's vote being foregone is one thing that leads to a broken system. This article has relevance to this problem as well. The vast majority of people won't realize that news is just noise, noise meant to misdirect voters. If…

Saying it’s bad to think your vote is foregone is different from saying it’s wrong.

And I’m not sure it is bad. It’s the truth, and it’s best to trust people with that. Knowing that my vote is effectively uncounted makes me more, not less, politically effective.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#205

Post by jowiar »

mostlyListening wrote: post #194
jowiar wrote: post #8

John Irving nailed it in A Prayer for Owen Meany: "Newspapers are a bad habit, the reading equivalent of junk food. What happens to me is that I seize upon an issue in the news—the issue is the moral/philosophical, political/intellectual equivalent of a cheeseburger with everything on it; but for the duration of my interest in it, all my other interests are consumed by it, and whatever appetites and capacities I may…

Most of what's in a newspaper is junk food, but there are very worthy parts: I find columns in NYT by Krugman, Brooks and Douthat to be thought-provoking even if I don't agree. And I find feature pieces of social or economic trends to be enlightening and helpful in terms of understanding people and the workings of our world. You might not find such understanding of people and of the world to be worthy goal in itself,…

I think what Irving was going for was less about news being worthless in the sense of the content being garbage, but rather that the distractions introduced into ones life by caring about national/world affairs of which we as individuals have little impact come at a great cost to our reserve of emotional energy.

That said... I work in politics.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#207

Post by ralfd »

wheels wrote: post #97

This is a topic that I've thought some on in that my company is in the recommendations space, and some thoughts on what make news recommendations difficult: The function of news is to facilitate smalltalk. I am reasonably convinced of this. News, as such, is mostly just something that you're supposed to have read so that you can get by in usual social interactions. What we read (and are supposed to have read) is very…

> The function of news is to facilitate smalltalk.

Case in point: I visit hacker news for the comments.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#208

Post by klipt »

peterwwillis wrote: post #151
Sukotto wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect you're trolling. But just in case you're not, and the problem really is that you cannot find interesting, educational and/or enlightening material... have you tried: Random Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random Ask.Metafilter (with accepted answer): http://ask.metafilter.com/home/answered Hack a Day: http://hackaday.com/ LifeHacker Top posts: http://lifehacker.com/top/ or http://lifehacker.…

I appreciate the attempt but these are examples of what I find uninteresting. Toys, gadgets, household tips and trivia are not the kind of noise I want when trying to optimize for value.

MIT open courseware.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#209

Post by adir1 »

Joeri wrote: post #201
wheels wrote: post #97

This is a topic that I've thought some on in that my company is in the recommendations space, and some thoughts on what make news recommendations difficult: The function of news is to facilitate smalltalk. I am reasonably convinced of this. News, as such, is mostly just something that you're supposed to have read so that you can get by in usual social interactions. What we read (and are supposed to have read) is very…

You underestimate the importance of smalltalk. Gossip is the cornerstone of a moral society, moreso than laws. Gossip forms reputations, and reputations determine who we trust. News is just gossip in the large. Solve the reputation problem, and you solve the gossip problem.

> Solve the reputation problem, and you solve the gossip problem.

I agree - this is the key! I've been really thinking hard about the whole reputation problem. In a way, Google found a way to solve reputation problem on the Internet for website, and therefore their tremendous success. Would equivalent method work on people - just give reputation points by Citation (or Followers, as Klout is trying to do)? I don't think that's enough - plus my feeling is that there are bunch of dimensions to a Reputation. And on top of all that - we haven't even solved Identity issue on the Net yet.

Re: Did You Hear We Got Osama?

#210

Post by adir1 »

esja wrote: post #202
Tossrock wrote: post #57

Reminds me of the classic Sherlock Holmes quote: "His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composit…

And more recently: "Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain." -- Homer Simpson

Who is Homer Simpson?
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