Has Taylor Swift peaked? - The musician is at the height of her commercial, but not her creative, power Taylor Swift’s immense popularity has brought her as much scrutiny as acclaim. The recent release of her album The Tortured Poets Department left many feeling underwhelmed. She reigns in commercial success, but creatively? Taylor swift has a strong claim to being the most popular entertainer of the 21st century—and perhaps of all time. Five of the ten most popular albums in America in 2023 were hers, according to Luminate, an analytics firm. Ms Swift’s albums have now cumulatively racked up 384 weeks in the top ten of the Billboard chart, beating a record previously held by the Beatles. She is halfway through the most lucrative concert tour ever. A film version of it grossed over $260m at the box office last year. ...

In the simplified Chinese internet community that consisted of social platforms and general E-commerce platforms, Little Red Book (Xiao Hong Shu) stands out as the Chinese Instagram. The app, which is based on the popular book of the same name, focuses on user-generated content, mostly in the area of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. Little Red Book app’s target demographic is mostly urban women aged 18 to 35 years old. The app started as a product review platform, where users were looking for luxury fashion and beauty products from overseas as well share their latest shopping tips with others on board. ...

Consider a decision problem where you have a collection of $\mathcal L$ papers to read before your next week’s meeting with your advisor. For each paper $l \in \mathcal L$, you can estimate its relevance and quality, represented as a potential intellectual reward $r_i$, modeled by a probability distribution $F_i(\cdot)$. $r_i$’s value is only learnt and acquired after you thoroughly read through the paper. Additionally, each paper comes with an uncertain reading time $t_i$, modeled by another distribution $G_i(\cdot)$. Notably, you have the flexibility to start reading a paper, pause and switch to another, and return to it later, adapting your reading strategy as needed. ...

Christie’s latest story Everything you need to know about Impressionism: how a group of rebel artists ‘freed painting’ offered a thorough, concise and informative introduction of the origin of impressionism. Coincidentally, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, the upcoming 20th Century Evening Sale (16, May 2024) features the presentation of Monet’s seminal painting, Moulin de Limetz, from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Heirs of Ethel B. Atha, accompanied by a few other exquisite examples by the artists who paved the way for the birth of 20th Century Art. ...

Three days following Taylor Swift’s release of her 31-track new album The Tortured Poets Department / The Anthology, Pitchfork released their reviews that rated 6.6 / 6 for the first and second half of the album, respectively. I believe writing the Pitchfork review of a Taylor Swift album should earn you the medal of freedom for your courage. –– Louie @DJLouieXIV, X Swifties quickly flooded the comment section under Pitchfork’s twitter post–speaking any slightest negativity unanonymously against the most passionate and gigantic fan base on earth requires extra courage and care. When there isn’t a ground truth but exists multiple conflicting believes, how influencial voices speak become a tricky issue. ...

Professor YaXiang Yuan recently graced SUFE with a compelling talk on Big Data & Optimization, masterfully engaging a diverse audience—from MBA students and enthusiastic undergrads to school leaders. He skillfully navigated the complexities of optimization theory, balancing depth with accessibility, transforming a regular Saturday into an enlightening experience. He began by highlighting key disciplines essential for shaping students into effective professionals: Statistics Computation Optimization Approximation Theory Discrete Mathematics Combinatorial Graph Theory Differential Equations Computational Geometry and more Using real-life examples, Yuan showcased how cutting-edge optimization theories enhance the modeling and solving of complex problems. Professor Yuan infused the session with his unique charm, paying homage to his deep roots in optimization theory while ensuring the talk remained approachable for all attendees. ...

My advisor was somehow less enthusiastic in information design as compared to other general algorithm game theory topics–despite my several failed attempts to lure him into doing some related projects. But his major concern is solid, that information design demands overly strong assumptions–the existence of a common prior, commitment of the signal sender, inference ability of the signal receiver–all poses challenges for direct applications that justify the existing theory. The real world should be something in between the perfectly rational Bayesian persuasion and the noisy cheap talks. ...

The first time I encountered the name “Daniel Kahneman” was in a behavioral economics class, where we were introduced to his seminal 1979 Econometrica paper on “prospect theory.” Initially, I pigeonholed him as an economist—a label he might not dispute, given his significant contributions to the interdisciplinary field of experimental economics, which bridges psychology and economics and has been instrumental in the development of behavioral economics. However, Daniel Kahneman is perhaps more a psychologist than an economist. The recent Freakonomics podcast episode, “The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution (Update),” features an interview with journalist Michael Lewis about his 2016 book The Undoing Project, which offers a high-level exploration of Kahneman’s impact on our understanding of ourselves. ...

And how many years can some people exist Before they’re allowed to be free? – Bob Dylan, Blowing in the Wind It is becoming easier for non-college graduates to settle for a job in metropolitans, thanks to the growing platform economy that lowers the bar for job entry. As netizen jokes for the go-to job choices, about the three so-called auspicious opportunities: security, cleaning, insurance sellers and the challenging ironman triathlon: takeout delivery, courier, uber driver". ...

Previously, we discussed the challenges faced by apple farmers in ShaanXi, China (see the sweet and sour of apples and cranberries), that the farmers battle against the fluctuating price by strategically storing apple inventories so as to sell later, yet their decisions are far from optimal that brings regret and misfortune that sabotages the families’ living business. My initial thought was that the problem belongs to market failures, that potential solutions lies in redesigning the selling mechanism and boost information transparency etc.. But here’s another way of tackling the problem, which is somehow pretty fancy: ...