The Argument for Surprise Content

I should first state that “surprise” is not quite the right word here: unscheduled, perhaps, is a better term. This inherently sounds like the weakest argument of all. Live wasn’t really that controversial of an argument in some ways: after all, we have live sports and concerts all the time. Limited sounded more controversial, but…

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The Argument for Limited Content

Note: Read past entries about Live Limited Surprise trend in content here. Today’s preferred Internet business model leans towards maximizing eyeballs for content and selling ads against that content, and also properly identifying smaller subgroups with targeting ads. We’ve been hearing about subscription-based models for a long time, but with few legitimate examples. Why would…

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The Argument for Live Content

Yesterday, I argued that the future of content would be Live, Limited, and Surprise. Arguing that the future of content is Live is both the easiest and most difficult argument of the Live Limited Surprise trio. The problem is that we often see live as unscripted, and think of, say, reality TV as live content.…

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On Virtue-Positive Operations

As usual, a disclaimer: there is probably plenty of research in this area that I am completely ignorant of. This is literally a random idea I had 2.5 hours ago while walking along the river. Yes, the .5 is there for pedantic purposes.  As I write this blog, Lyft has already gone public, and Uber…

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On Video Game Analytics and a Neuroscientist Perspective

Note: This blog was previously published as part of the 2018 INFORMS Annual Conference. It’s the last day of the conference, the day where often new members make their first INFORMS presentations. Many of us know someone whose training is not in ORMS per se, but whom we’d enjoy seeing at the conference because of…

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Rethinking Well-Known Concepts

Note: This blog was first published for the 2018 INFORMS annual conference. When we attend INFORMS, we usually we learn new things about what we already know, or experience new concepts for the first time. But I had an interesting experience in a TIMES session that made me think of another type of learning. Sometimes…

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Peak Analytics and Novelty

Note: This blog post was originally written for the INFORMS 2018 annual conference. Suppose for a moment, that your favorite sports team has completely adopted analytics. Your (American) football coach stops giving the inefficient running back so many carries. Your mediocre basketball center no longer dominates the ball for post-ups, instead serving as a willing passer…

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The Seductive Long Tail of the White Whale

Originally posted September 2, 2011. In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson uses the “long tail” as a statistical property to suggest that businesses can make a lot of money by selling items that only a few people want. Given the ease of selling items online, eventually a near-complete inventory of all a human being desires…

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