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[1] has an HN discussion from 2012 on “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did” [2] is the non-paywalled NYT article being discus
by wheelinsupial 5y ago
[1] has an HN discussion from 2012 on “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did”
[2] is the non-paywalled NYT article being discussed and linked to in the thread.
It starts: “Andrew Pole had just started working as a statistician for Target in 2002, when two colleagues from the marketing department stopped by his desk to ask an odd question: ‘If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didn’t want us to know, can you do that?’”
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3601354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3601354
[2] https://archive.md/Ou4mB https://archive.md/Ou4mB
- anigbrowl 5y agoI remember that one. Marketing as a profession really seems to attract sociopaths. I'm not sure the people who enable them are much better.
- jacquesm 5y agoIn my book the enablers are worse. Without them the sociopaths wouldn't be able to do much of anything. Bad ideas abound, execution capability is - rightly - rewarded when it works out positively, likewise it should be punished when used in a negative way.