3 ms·

Do you think this may be a bit of Baader-Meinhof going on?

1_player 9y ago
Probably. A couple of non technical friends and I were talking about Bitcoin one evening, they had never heard of it. A few days later one of these friends calls me asking how is it possible that he's seeing Bitcoin ads everywhere after we talked. I also thought that's Baader-Meinhof happening, but it doesn't make ads any less creepy.
- samsonradu 9y ago
  Ha, I had a couple of experiences alike also. But then if you look at the big picture, it makes sense. You're a solid target for Bitcoin ads, you're in the same location with 3 other people, likely same demographics, interests, social status etc. and they become a target too? This is all suppositions of course, I have no idea how it works. But I've tried this experiment with my gf once: We both opened Instagram and started talking about a product class that we never saw ads for there, say like shampoos. We even mentioned a few brands and then waited for the ads to hit us. They never did. EDIT We use iPhones
  - 1_player 9y ago
    > you're in the same location with 3 other people, likely same demographics, interests, social status etc. and they become a target too Nice, let's call this technique "advertisement by osmosis" :-)
maxxxxx 9y ago
What is Baader-Meinhof? I only know the terrorist group with that name.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  The “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon” is a name that was applied to the frequency illusion [1] before the term “frequency illusion” was coined. It's a particularly bad case of opaque naming, because even knowing about the terms that make it up gives you no clue what it means (since it doesn't reference the Baader-Meinhof Gang, but instead presumably the experience of the person who coined the term around the time they first encountered the name “Baader-Meinhof Gang”.) Further shortening to “Baader-Meinhof” (perhaps a result of mistaking the name for being named after the discoverers, which would be less opaque, like the Dunning-Kruger Effect, where familiarity with the work of the researchers in question makes the term less opaque) actually makes the term worse, since then it seems like a direct reference or analogy to the group. [1] http://web.stanford.edu/~zwicky/LSA07illude.abst.pdf http://web.stanford.edu/~zwicky/LSA07illude.abst.pdf

Probably. A couple of non technical friends and I were talking about Bitcoin one evening, they had never heard of it. A few days later one of these friends calls me asking how is it possible that he's seeing Bitcoin ads everywhere after we talked. I also thought that's Baader-Meinhof happening, but it doesn't make ads any less creepy.

samsonradu 9y ago
Ha, I had a couple of experiences alike also. But then if you look at the big picture, it makes sense. You're a solid target for Bitcoin ads, you're in the same location with 3 other people, likely same demographics, interests, social status etc. and they become a target too? This is all suppositions of course, I have no idea how it works. But I've tried this experiment with my gf once: We both opened Instagram and started talking about a product class that we never saw ads for there, say like shampoos. We even mentioned a few brands and then waited for the ads to hit us. They never did. EDIT We use iPhones
- 1_player 9y ago
  > you're in the same location with 3 other people, likely same demographics, interests, social status etc. and they become a target too Nice, let's call this technique "advertisement by osmosis" :-)

maxxxxx 9y ago

What is Baader-Meinhof? I only know the terrorist group with that name.

dragonwriter 9y ago
The “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon” is a name that was applied to the frequency illusion [1] before the term “frequency illusion” was coined. It's a particularly bad case of opaque naming, because even knowing about the terms that make it up gives you no clue what it means (since it doesn't reference the Baader-Meinhof Gang, but instead presumably the experience of the person who coined the term around the time they first encountered the name “Baader-Meinhof Gang”.) Further shortening to “Baader-Meinhof” (perhaps a result of mistaking the name for being named after the discoverers, which would be less opaque, like the Dunning-Kruger Effect, where familiarity with the work of the researchers in question makes the term less opaque) actually makes the term worse, since then it seems like a direct reference or analogy to the group. [1] http://web.stanford.edu/~zwicky/LSA07illude.abst.pdf http://web.stanford.edu/~zwicky/LSA07illude.abst.pdf