from the Economist | Data is giving rise to a new economy

I’ve been researching on data trading. China established several state-owned data exchange centers (e.g. Shanghai Data Exchange) and they are gradually building momentum recently because of the generative-AI booming bubble. But it’s not a new thing. An early article ‘Data is giving rise to a new economy’ sort of predicted the prosperous market seven years ago (The Economist, May 6th 2017). Data are to this century what oil was to the last one: a driver of growth and change....

February 10, 2024

the magnificent, magical, marvelous mrs Maisel

costume, escapism and narrative depth - a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ show to watch.

February 9, 2024

the IDGAS energy in Sabrina Carpenter's 'Nonsense'

Sabrina Carpenter’s hit Nonsense is a great song, both artistically and commercially. The song gives a “I-DONT-GIVE-A-SHIT” (IDGAS) energy. The singer herself said in Genius VERIFIED interview “…we were hitting a lot of walls and we’re like, you know what, let’s just literally write nonsense, no joke. and that’s how the song happened.” “A lot of our justification for lyrics was well it’s nonsense. so it doesn’t have to make any sense at all and we just have fun....

February 8, 2024

art for art's sake

I’ve got two amazing topics to write about. One is Sabrina Carpenter’s single Nonsense, the other is the final season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. Cheers! Art for art’s sake. Stayed tuned before the holiday specials.

February 7, 2024

the recent Messi mania in HK

Who doesn’t love Messi? There is something mesmerising about his minimalism. He has stripped the game back to its essentials; his greatest gift has perhaps been his capacity to select the lowest-tariff option necessary in any given situation. There is an impish grace to everything he does on a pitch and yet his success is rooted in cold, unfussy calculation. But recently, something other than pure football is all over the news....

February 6, 2024

competition consequences II

Following competition consequences I, part II about competition and repugnancy. A repugnant market refers to a market where certain goods or services are considered objectionable or morally unacceptable to buy and sell, despite there being potential buyers and sellers. Examples include markets for organs, surrogacy, and certain forms of labor. However, beyond moral objections, these markets raise additional concerns, as said in Al Roth’s Who Gets What and Why, it’s important to remember that:...

February 5, 2024

competition consequences I

two market fokelores that have fascinated me for a while.

February 4, 2024

data trading - designing the mechanism or the market

bridging concepts Recently, I’ve come to realize that there is a nuanced distinction between mechanism design and market design. Initially, I conflated the two, but a deeper dive into the subject matter—prompted by a friend’s bachelor thesis—has elucidated the critical differences. Mechanism design is inherently algorithmic, centered around eliciting information and strategically manipulating incentives through mathematical formulations. It’s a toolset for creating environments where desired outcomes can be achieved based on the information asymmetries and strategic interactions of participants....

February 3, 2024

photos, photographers

I’ve recently stumbled across a photographer Chaoming Zeng (曾朝民) on instagram, whose base is also Guangdong China, but more in the rural area like Dong-guan. Here’s the particular work that really took my breath away: All rights belong to the original photographer, @chaomingzeng. But, OMG, this picture is almost like an oil painting of modern misery juxtaposed with the mundane hope of life. Personally, I am deeply attached to my hometown Guangzhou, of the vibrant yet chaotic essence, a raw, unpolished vitality that roots itself deeply in the everyday lives of its inhabitants....

February 2, 2024

understanding (a bit of) ML through HD-statistics

There’s a meme that perfectly captures the essence of understanding machine learning, a realization that dawned on me after enrolling in both machine learning and statistics courses. It highlights the intricate relationship between these fields in a humorous yet profound way: It wasn’t until taking both machine learning and stats courses to make me recall how accurate this meme is. High Dimensional Statistics was an elective course I took last semester (Fall/Winter 2023-24) at SUFE, taught by Prof....

February 1, 2024