The Spread of Slang: Information Cascades and Diffusion
Articles The Global Spread of American Slang, https://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/globalamerican/slang/ How and Why Slang Spreads, http://danzarrella.com/slang/ The two articles essentially talk about the power of slang and how it can spread globally. One of the examples was how English slang words spread into non-native English speaking countries, where the words were assimilated into their native language, e.g. […]
The Cascade Effect of The Low-Fat Diet
https://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/how-the-low-fat-low-fact-cascade-just-keeps-rolling-along/ This article explores how the cascade effect has impacted the public’s view of low-fat diets. Low-fat diets have been dubbed ineffective by many health experts, However, it is widely believed that low-fat diets can prolong your life. In the article, this is explained by the idea that the main choice when speaking about […]
Google, Helping the ‘Rich Get Richer’, so to speak
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-google-interferes-with-its-search-algorithms-and-changes-your-results-11573823753 The attached article discusses some secretive parts of Google’s operations and the methods it uses to display search results. It appears, after this Wall Street Journal investigation, that it exerts a lot more influence over what its users are able to see than it lets on to the public. While Google claims to use […]
Decentralized Prediction Markets
Decentralized Prediction Markets: the Opportunities, the Threats, and the Platforms In this article, a specific type of prediction market is introduced. Decentralized prediction markets are characterized by the lack of central parties involved. The aim of decentralized markets is to ensure that there is no bias and all aspects of the process are as […]
Bayes’ Rule and the Monty Hall Problem
A famous probability puzzle is the Monty Hall problem. The basis of the problem is a game show, where you are a contestant trying to win a new car. There are three doors, behind 2/3 doors there is a goat, behind one of the doors there is a car. At the beginning of the game […]
Instagram, vote manipulation, and information cascade
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-s-instagram-poised-be-2020-disinformation-battleground-experts-say-n1063941 The NBC article mentioned how Instagram is attempting to combat misinformation on its platform, primarily spread through the use of images and memes. Since social media posts have public engagement levels, the popularity of posts closely follows the power-law distribution, otherwise known as the “rich get richer” phenomenon. This is because when users look […]
How the Network Effect Drives Slack’s Success
Reaching $1 million in revenue after 2 weeks of launching and a $24 billion IPO this June, Slack has found success not only because it made users fall in love with its integral chatting system and accessible archives of messages and documents, but also because of the network effect that the platform is able to […]
Political Prediction Markets
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-01/predictit-owns-the-market-for-2020-presidential-election-betting Our discussions of prediction markets reminded me of something a political science professor spoke about in his class: the world of betting on political outcomes in online prediction markets. For the most part this is considered gambling and is banned in the United States, although this can be bypassed via a VPN and the […]
HeyTea’s success and information cascade
https://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/2161529/how-chinese-tea-drink-brand-heytea-saves-millions-marketing-costs https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7xk5gb/people-in-beijing-are-lining-up-for-hours-to-try-cheese-tea HeyTea, a Chinese beverage start-up usually known for its cheese-topping tea has been popular among Chinese millennials since 2017. As a matter of fact, young people in Beijing are waiting in queue for more than 3 hours simply to get a cup of oolong tea with cheese topping that can be finished in […]
Information Cascades and Artificial Sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners have become more popular over the past couple of years, with new brands coming to light and advertising their zero-calorie products. However, I often hear people talk about how natural sugar is better than Splenda, Stevia, etc., because “there must be dangerous chemicals” in these manmade sweeteners, which is further validated by the […]
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