If you read the article further it morphs from "you gotta have a better time series tool bro" to an article about "if you don't know what adverse selection is,

If you read the article further it morphs from "you gotta have a better time series tool bro" to an article about "if you don't know what adverse selection is, no amount of highly-paid machine learning engineers will help you". This, I think, it a more valid point (and it was not only made by the author). Or, let's say, it is at least a fun implication: When companies like Amazon and Google hire hundreds of Econ PhDs to design platforms, market ops and auctions, it IS amusing to imagine that Zillow thought they could just "Machine Learn" their way through it and they fall flat on their noses.