On the web

Curiosity keeps me creative. I relentlessly browse the web for inspiring piece of news or work.
I share my findings on this page.

31st of January

Stat Wars, Episode VIII: Return of Bayes

Chronique de Remi Aubert AB Tasty   05/06/15 11:00
14th of October

On the other hands

IT SOUNDS like an easy question for any half-competent scientist to answer. Do dark-skinned footballers get given red cards more often than light-skinned ones? But, as Raphael Silberzahn of IESE, a…
21st of August

The Problem With Customer Service

Almost everyone has to deal with customer service at some point. In fact, 88 percent of the people surveyed recently by the Consumer Reports National Research Center had done so in the past…
9th of August

At Airbnb, Data Science Belongs Everywhere: Insights from Five Years of Hypergrowth

Five years ago, I joined Airbnb as its first data scientist. At that time, the few people who’d even heard of the company were still figuring out how to pronounce its name, and the roughly 7…
21st of July

I'll have what she's having: How peers influence the adoption of new sales channels

Selling used to be so simple: pack up the wagon, harness the horse, and head to the nearest settlement. Today, retailers have to allocate their marketing dollars across a multitude of channels, from…

Meet 'Jet,' the Startup Taking On Amazon and Costco

Jet Jet Finding a good deal online isn’t all that difficult. But finding the best deal? That’s a much tougher hill to climb. Still, from President’s Day through Black Friday (and…
18th of July

The Social-Network Illusion That Tricks Your Mind

One of the curious things about social networks is the way that some messages, pictures, or ideas can spread like wildfire while others that seem just as catchy or interesting barely register at all.…
15th of July

Google Is Making Shopping on a Smartphone Much Easier

Jewel Samad—AFP/Getty Images Google's lead designer for "Inbox by Gmail" Jason Cornwell shows the app's functionalities on a nexus 6 android phone during a media preview in New York on October…
23rd of June

The Struggle for Accurate Measurements on Your Wrist

Until recently, I didn’t know a thing about how my roughly 25-minute bike commute across San Francisco—or any other part of my day, really—affects my body, other than that I…
12th of August

Tech Startups Looking to Transform What’s on Your Plate

Food substitutes, 3D-printed meat, ingredient scanners – the list goes on. There are now lots of innovative companies determined to bring about profound changes to the way we eat. Bill Gates,…
9th of August

What Will It Take to Make Your Grandma’s Wearable?

The current wave of wearable technology shows no signs of ebbing. On the contrary, the imagination and innovation of wearable applications is at an all-time high. Pick up any technology newsfeed and…
8th of August

Israel, Gaza, War & Data

Instagram co-tag graph, highlighting three distinct topical communities: 1) pro-Israeli (Orange), 2) pro-Palestinian (Yellow), and 3) Religious / muslim (Purple)As I’m writing this post,…
7th of August

Uber Could Finally Make Smartphone Carpools Work

Photograph by David Ramos/Getty Images When Uber started up New York City in 2011, I wrote a short piece comparing it with another seemingly innovative transportation startup called Weeels. Uber…
6th of August

Beware Big Data's Easy Answers

The rise of powerful and easy-to-use software (e.g., software as a service) and analytic programming languages (e.g., R) have made it possible for people across the entire organization — not…
1st of August

Hold the Phone: A Big-Data Conundrum

I often grumble to my graduate students that every time a new iPhone comes out, my existing iPhone seems to slow down. How convenient, I might think: Wouldn’t many business owners love to make their old product less useful whenever they released a newer one? When you sell the device and control the operating system, that’s an option.
27th of July

Internet Of Caring Things

Why consumers will embrace connected objects with a clear mission: to actively care for them. Consumers don't care about the Internet of Things. Okay, most of them don't.
12th of April

Amazon's Magic Wand and the Unrelenting Race to Make Shopping More Convenient

In the last two months, Amazon has spotlighted two new products that allow shoppers to add items to their shopping list without ever typing anything into a search bar. This isn’t a…
11th of April

IBM Watson provides Big Data backing for the culinary art

By Agathe Foussat March 13, 2014 IBM’s supercomputer Watson has now found its way into the kitchen, or almost. Some of its innovative cooking ideas were put in front of diners for the first…
27th of March

Internet music preferences now being used to target likely voters

Next time you listen to a Bob Marley channel on Pandora Media Inc., the Internet radio service may peg you as likely to vote for a Democrat. The Oakland, Calif., company plans to roll out a new…
20th of March

Yahoo Aims to More Deftly Blend Ads With Content

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — To Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo, fashion magazines like Vogue and InStyle have achieved the holy grail of advertising.“The ads in those magazines are…