5 ms·

Ah man, I wanted that job. I guess I didn't waste enough time on the Internet answering questions during my PhD.

raawa001 10y ago
I wouldn't call it waste if it helped him land the job.
amelius 10y ago
The article is a very nice write-up, but in the end he is still optimizing advertisement click-through rates (a zero-sum game). While interesting from a technical point of view, why not make yourself 1000x more useful to society by working, for example, on "cognitive health" problems? These are problems that lean heavily on statistics, and are interesting and imho more rewarding at the same time.
- harshnisar 10y ago
  Interesting, how is optimising advertisement CTR a zero-sum game? Just curious.
  - amelius 10y ago
    From wikipedia [1]: > In game theory and economic theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant's gain (or loss) of utility is exactly balanced by the losses (or gains) of the utility of the other participant(s). Advertisement is (to first approximation) zero-sum in the sense that what you sell, your competitor will not sell. The contribution to society of the advertisement is zero. You can say that you have provided the customer the service of making them aware of the product, but that is only in second approximation, as customers generally do not want this service. Also, they can only spend their money once. Further, ads cost money, so perhaps we can even call it a negative-sum game :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game
    - marketforlemmas 10y ago
      I don't think advertising for jobs is a zero-sum game, especially if the matching algorithm is good enough to match employers and employees that had no knowledge of each other before. If you are able to reduce those search frictions, you have created value. Several economic professors won the Nobel prize for their work in this area: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/the-work-behind-the-nobel-prize/?_r=0 http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/the-work-behind... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_theory
      - amelius 10y ago
        Well, those Nobel prizes are for a specific theory. In practice, in this case, you see developers looking to get problems solved (or solving problems), and getting distracted to look for another job. So even if you are removing market friction, there's a huge cost in people switching (or even getting distracted all the time). In my opinion, if people are looking for a job, they should go to a job-hunting website (even if it has lower-quality data about them). Anyway, it would be nice to have the effects properly quantified.
        var_explained 10y ago
        There are many developers looking for a good job. There are many companies having difficulty finding qualified developers. Our goal is to solve those problems, and it is not a zero-sum game.
    - dragonwriter 10y ago
      > Advertisement is (to first approximation) zero-sum in the sense that what you sell, your competitor will not sell. No, its not. A major portion of the effort in advertising of most products goes into spreading knowledge and/or perceived need for the product category, not just competing for share of the existing demand. > The contribution to society of the advertisement is zero. Even in the purely competitive case, that's only clearly the case in the case where the products are perfect subsitutes with neither cost nor utility differences for the purchaser.
- lovestats3 10y ago
  How is matching people to jobs a zero-sum game? If you are able to devise a method to find the ideal job for people I think that society will benefit from it, better products and services will be constructed, so this is in no way a zero-sum game. Is a win-win situation is jobs seekers and jobs providers are able to find the match the right candidate with the right job what require to pay the right price.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- marmaduke 10y ago
  yep agree, found myself working on clinical neurology applications instead (probably less well paid tho)
- imh 10y ago
  Optimizing CTRs is not at all zero sum. Advertising a board game to me instead of beyonce tickets doesn't take my clicks away from Beyonce. I'm just not interested in seeing her show. Another client might be the reverse.

I wouldn't call it waste if it helped him land the job.

The article is a very nice write-up, but in the end he is still optimizing advertisement click-through rates (a zero-sum game). While interesting from a technical point of view, why not make yourself 1000x more useful to society by working, for example, on "cognitive health" problems? These are problems that lean heavily on statistics, and are interesting and imho more rewarding at the same time.

harshnisar 10y ago
Interesting, how is optimising advertisement CTR a zero-sum game? Just curious.
- amelius 10y ago
  From wikipedia [1]: > In game theory and economic theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant's gain (or loss) of utility is exactly balanced by the losses (or gains) of the utility of the other participant(s). Advertisement is (to first approximation) zero-sum in the sense that what you sell, your competitor will not sell. The contribution to society of the advertisement is zero. You can say that you have provided the customer the service of making them aware of the product, but that is only in second approximation, as customers generally do not want this service. Also, they can only spend their money once. Further, ads cost money, so perhaps we can even call it a negative-sum game :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game
  - marketforlemmas 10y ago
    I don't think advertising for jobs is a zero-sum game, especially if the matching algorithm is good enough to match employers and employees that had no knowledge of each other before. If you are able to reduce those search frictions, you have created value. Several economic professors won the Nobel prize for their work in this area: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/the-work-behind-the-nobel-prize/?_r=0 http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/the-work-behind... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_theory
    - amelius 10y ago
      Well, those Nobel prizes are for a specific theory. In practice, in this case, you see developers looking to get problems solved (or solving problems), and getting distracted to look for another job. So even if you are removing market friction, there's a huge cost in people switching (or even getting distracted all the time). In my opinion, if people are looking for a job, they should go to a job-hunting website (even if it has lower-quality data about them). Anyway, it would be nice to have the effects properly quantified.
      - var_explained 10y ago
        There are many developers looking for a good job. There are many companies having difficulty finding qualified developers. Our goal is to solve those problems, and it is not a zero-sum game.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > Advertisement is (to first approximation) zero-sum in the sense that what you sell, your competitor will not sell. No, its not. A major portion of the effort in advertising of most products goes into spreading knowledge and/or perceived need for the product category, not just competing for share of the existing demand. > The contribution to society of the advertisement is zero. Even in the purely competitive case, that's only clearly the case in the case where the products are perfect subsitutes with neither cost nor utility differences for the purchaser.
lovestats3 10y ago
How is matching people to jobs a zero-sum game? If you are able to devise a method to find the ideal job for people I think that society will benefit from it, better products and services will be constructed, so this is in no way a zero-sum game. Is a win-win situation is jobs seekers and jobs providers are able to find the match the right candidate with the right job what require to pay the right price.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
marmaduke 10y ago
yep agree, found myself working on clinical neurology applications instead (probably less well paid tho)
imh 10y ago
Optimizing CTRs is not at all zero sum. Advertising a board game to me instead of beyonce tickets doesn't take my clicks away from Beyonce. I'm just not interested in seeing her show. Another client might be the reverse.