twitter/the-algorithm

Re:twitter/the-algorithm by andrewmcwatters on Monday April 25, 2022 @05:55PM (#31161224)

For someone who worked on recommendation systems, you really don't seem to understand the concept of an "algorithm" across the abstraction of multiple systems and at different layers of the stack you worked on.

In fact, a lot of people here really think what people are talking about is the equivalent of what is handled in a subroutine.

No, what people are talking about when they talk about "the algorithm" is anything affecting the result set they're reading. Concepts like eventual consistency and edge computing are... well... a part of a model which laypeople, and even reasonably technical people call an "algorithm."

Being pedantic about whether or not this happens in an SQL query, or across multiple codebases, or by region, doesn't escape the question.

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Re:twitter/the-algorithm by mistermann on Monday April 25, 2022 @06:16PM (#31161465)

Absolutely agree with what you say, but I wanted to pick a nit here:

> Being pedantic about whether or not this happens in an SQL query, or across multiple codebases, or by region, doesn't escape the question.

Actually, epistemic ~"muddying of the waters" is a well proven technique to control perceptions and public discourse. If it works on HN folks, I expect it would work much more easily on amateurs.

[ Parent | on HN ]