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César A. Hidalgo

@cesifoti

7 Oct

What are complex systems? And what does it mean to study complexity? The recent Physics Nobel Prize has brought complexity back into the limelight, but also, it is pushing those of us who have dedicated our lives to the of study complex systems to reflect on its history. 🧵 /1

My journey into complex systems began in the late 90s, as an undergraduate in Chile, when I discovered fractals, chaos, pattern formation, & iterated functions. I devoured books on these topics. But late in my degree I learned that Networks was were the field was moving.

@barabasi

One book, and one particular message that strongly resonated with me, was @barabasi’s Linked. Throughout the book, Laszlo repeated one idea over and over.

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César A. Hidalgo

@cesifoti

6 Oct

My experience using Facebook has been quite different over the last year. I have posted primarily personal & life content to many people, most of whom I've met in person. As a result, I am not getting much political content in my feed. I understand the problem but don't relate.⬇️

Facebook is the only place where I interact with distant cousins and aunts, many of advanced age. It is not a colosseum like Twitter. But the place where family and friends can "spy" on you.

So after 16 years in America, I have to ask: is it just Facebook? Or is it loneliness?

Some content has to be shoveled into your feed. If you cannot flood your feed with content from people you know, your feed will be populated with content that people shared. And non-viral and viral content look a bit different

Read 8 tweets

César A. Hidalgo

@cesifoti

12 Sep

After advising PhD & Master students for over a decade, there is one thing I find most students need to unlearn: the half-ass work mentality acquired during years of tests and homework. Let me explain (thread 🧵). 1/N #AcademicTwitter

For most of their education students are evaluated using tests & homework. We are all familiar with the process. The student is asked to do some work; they turn it in, and get a grade (eg a B+,B, A, etc.) 2/N

But when they make it to grad school (or to their first job) it is quite different. Once they turn in work, they are not given a grade. They are given feedback and asked to do the work again. Sometimes several times. 3/N

Read 12 tweets

César A. Hidalgo

@cesifoti

8 Sep

The "IKIGAI" of research (thread 🧵)
When thinking about research projects, it may be useful to have a way to think about their potential value. Over the years, I've seen many projects fail, & some succeed. Today, I think about projects in terms of three basic dimensions:

These are:
(1) Relevance: is there a reason to care about the research result? Who will care? And why?
(2) Surprise: is the result more than what people would expect from simple common sense? Is it counterintuitive?
(3) Rigor: is the research sound and reproducible?

Finding projects that balance the three is rare. But we all know a few great examples. Consider Newton's law of gravitation. It is relevant since it helps explain the movement of projectiles and celestial objects.

Read 8 tweets

César A. Hidalgo

@cesifoti

22 Apr

The EU just published an extensive proposal to regulate AI (100+ pages). What does it says? What does it mean? Here, a short explainer on some key aspects of this proposal to regulate AI. /1 🧵 #AIandEdu #AI
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/pro…

First, what is considered AI in this law proposal? Is linear regression AI? AI is defined in Title I & Annex I. My understanding here is that even a simple linear regression model (technically, a "statistical approach" to "supervised learning") would be considered AI. /2

The proposal makes a strong distinction among AI systems based on their application. In fact, it focuses particularly on high-risk systems. These systems would have the highest requirements for transparency, human oversight, data quality, etc.
But what are high-risk systems? /3

Read 17 tweets

César A. Hidalgo

@cesifoti

20 Apr

In 2014, the New York Times reported a story about Jannette Navarro, a mother of a 4-year-old working at a Starbucks. With only a few days notice, she would be asked to work until 11 pm & return at 4 am the next day, a practice known as "clopening." judgingmachines.com /1

Navarro’s unpredictable work schedule made her life incredibly complicated. But her schedule was not being prepared by a sadistic manager. It was made by an algorithm created by a company called Kronos, a vendor that Starbucks hired to optimize its labor force./2

Starbucks updated its practices immediately after the Times ran Navarro’s story. Yet, years later, practices such as "clopening" still prevail in the low-wage sectors of the US economy. This story illustrates two important aspects of the relationship between AI & work. /3

Read 25 tweets

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