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The article is mathematically unsound and provides no proof or model whatsoever of what they claim.
by dkural 8y ago
The article is mathematically unsound and provides no proof or model whatsoever of what they claim.
- vertexFarm 8y agoI think it's meant more as a thought experiment than an actual formal proof.
- gwern 8y agoI am a little surprised that it just provides a simulated model; Yahoo ran a famous experiment which does exactly what demonstrates his point about randomness and media success being only weakly correlated with success: "Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market" http://www.princeton.edu/~mjs3/salganik_dodds_watts06_full.pdf http://www.princeton.edu/~mjs3/salganik_dodds_watts06_full.p..., Salganik et al 2006; Salganik & Watts 2009, http://www.princeton.edu/~mjs3/salganik_watts09.pdf http://www.princeton.edu/~mjs3/salganik_watts09.pdf "Web-Based Experiments for the Study of Collective Social Dynamics in Cultural Markets"; http://cultural-science.org/FeastPapers2008/AlexBentley1Bp.pdf http://cultural-science.org/FeastPapers2008/AlexBentley1Bp.p... ; "Leading the Herd Astray: An Experimental Study of Self-fulfilling Prophecies in an Artificial Cultural Market" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3785310/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3785310/ , Salganik & Watts 2008.
- dkural 8y agoGreat links! I agree with the general truth of the phenomenon described & your references do a much better job demonstrating this.