Abstract (TL;DR):

Occam’s razor posits the problem-solving heuristic that “entities should not be multiplied without necessity,” or similarly, “of two [or more] competing theories, the simpler explanation of an entity is to be preferred.” That is to say, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. The polyonymous Benford’s Law (a.k.a. Newcomb-Benford Law, the Law of Anomalous Numbers, The First-Digit Phenomenon, etc.) is no exception and is, in fact, a rather exemplary instance of Occam’s razor.

Benford’s Law has been observed, defined (both naturally and formally in mathematical language and notation), investigated, recognized, AND applied in fields ranging from accounting to forensics…

There’s been a lot of buzz about the documentary “The Social Dilemma” that was released on Netflix last year. It’s been a great catalyst for starting much needed critical discussions on ever more urgent social issues.

When participating in these discussions it’s not uncommon to hear the following solutions or some variation of them being proposed:

• The Hermit Approach — We just need to get off social media
• The Social Pressure Approach — We just need to convince the tech companies to be more ethical
• The Regulatory Approach — We just need more laws and government oversight
• The Silicon Valley…

It was summertime in Washington state. Or no — maybe it was fall. Maybe spring? I can’t remember.

Anyway, my wife and I were visiting family on Whidbey Island. Fun Fact: it’s the longest island in the US.

It was to be one of the last times we were going to have reason to visit the Seattle area since I knew my family was making plans to move south to California, so on the last day of our visit my wife and I set out on a blitz to visit a list of destinations before we left.

• Snoqualmie — being…

There’s a scene in the TV series “The Middle” where Mike Heck gives a bumbling speech at his brother’s wedding and closes with the following:

“We’re all gonna die. And we’re all gonna have a gravestone with a dash on it, 1942–2016,1963–2038, and that dash represents your life.
And the thing I know for sure is cause of these four people right here, my family, is that dash will have meant something.”

Now this scene is actually referencing a poem call “The Dash” written by Linda Ellis highlighting just how fleeting our lives are. …

Love this medium post!

Can you expound on what you mean by data ownership level? Also can you expound on what is implicit privacy?

Andrea, thanks for the follow up. Truly appreciate it!

Also glad you found the paper insightful

I hope you follow the rest of my series as what I aim to do is definitively prove that all of these propositions miss the mark.

I accidentally stumbled onto Medium.

I saw an article that intrigued me on another social media platform (which is rare these days). I read it and thought to myself, “damn that was an awesome article and is exactly what I been thinking too.” I liked the article so much that a couple of days later I went back and read it again.

On the second reading I noticed something I hadn’t the first time through. At the bottom there was a small note — and I’m paraphrasing here-that said this article was originally published in Medium.

Immediately I thought, “Wait…there’s…