• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
  • Showing only topics with the tag "algorithms". Back to normal view
    1. Great examples of explaining an algorithm (or even just a process)

      Does anyone have any great examples of a document that explains an algorithm? For work, I am trying to learn how an algorithm works, and I thought it'd be a great exercise to build up a doc that...

      Does anyone have any great examples of a document that explains an algorithm?

      For work, I am trying to learn how an algorithm works, and I thought it'd be a great exercise to build up a doc that outlines what happens and how it works. I'm hopefully to lean slightly on the more technical side, but not so far that non-technical people won't derive any meaning.

      I'm looking to write something that clearly outlines a process, and shows how those pieces affect the final result. It's something I've never done before, but having difficulty finding posts when googling around for "how an algorithm works".

      I'm thinking the ideal format mixes both text and graphics, but the majority I have found are gigantic walls of text. I want to write about a software algorithm, but I think this broadly applies for any sort of complicated process.

      13 votes
    2. Which content-recommending algorithms are actually good?

      For the end-user, that is. I'm sure Meta and the like think their algorithms are fantastic at what they want them to do. I find myself routinely asking why I get so many suggestions I have no...

      For the end-user, that is. I'm sure Meta and the like think their algorithms are fantastic at what they want them to do.

      I find myself routinely asking why I get so many suggestions I have no interest in when using all types of websites. I haven't used social media since the early years of Facebook, but I imagine most recommendation algorithms are tuned much like the ones on those sites, i.e. to offer more of the same, whereas I'd prefer something to introduce different stuff I'd probably like. Maybe that differentiates me from the average user, but there should be enough people like me that it'd be factored in, no? Just because I watch a cat video doesn't mean I'm all in on cats.

      I mostly like Pandora's service but it feels like their music library isn't huge for my fav genres. Steam regularly tries to interest me in the most insipid games based on superficial commonalities to what's already in my library. Youtube can be good, but it can easily be echo-chambery. Shopping websites of all sorts are usually a crapshoot. What gives?

      28 votes