So You’ve Bought algorithms uncannily good at spotting your … Now What?
Not that this is a bad thing. We all have our own set of habits, routines, and impulses that we can rely on to get where we’re going, or what’s best for us. The idea that algorithms can do that is a great one. There are many algorithms I know that are good at spotting your habits, routines, impulses, and reactions, making you believe you’re doing a good job.
Like the algorithm that knows when you’re not in a good mood.
This is actually a really good one. It is one that I use to spot my own habits, routines, impulses, and reactions. It is called the “Calgary Method.” In it, you use a graph called “calgary.” You can tell if youre doing a good job by looking at the values in the graph. The trick is you need to start with a tiny set of values and then incrementally move your way up.
This is great for spotting your routine, or your impulse. But the trick is that calgary isn’t very accurate. For example, you might be on autopilot and do too much of something, but calgary might tell you youre doing a very good job. This is why we use the Calgary Method.
Calgary takes into account the values you have in your routine, whether that be in your daily habits, the habits of your friends, the habits of your family, or all of those things combined. For example, if youre doing a lot of coffee, calgary might look at this and see that youre not getting any caffeine in your java today. If youre doing a lot of work, calgary might look at this and see that you should be more efficient with all this work.
This is especially true if you, for example, have a very organized, structured office and would like to reduce the amount of time you spend in your cubicle. If calgarys look at this, they can notice that youre doing a lot of work, so calgary may take that into account and say, “hey, don’t work as much. It’ll save you time.
Thats a good point. It doesnt take much to notice that youre working more than usual, but is very easy to give up and put in a different job. Thats actually a good thing to do. In fact, that can be a great way to save your own time. If youre a doctor and have the time to take care of a sick patient, it might be a good idea to take an early lunch break.
There is also a point where a scientist like me will have to write a paper that goes in to talk about why they have to do it. It’ll be a great time to talk about the paper and let it be seen and understood.
I think what happens is that those jobs that I would otherwise have been unhappy about, I would rather work part time in because I can have the satisfaction of knowing I did a good job. I think that is the same thing we should do with the jobs that the algorithms do.
For the most part, we tend to be pretty good at doing things that we think are fair and have a good reason for doing. But I think the algorithm does have some flaws. It’s not just that it is easy to get into, but that it’s not clear that every algorithm has a fair or good reason to do what it does.