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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

yes, yes, I think you guys have stumbled upon the new secret to beating the market! We are hard wired to behave this way. And for the lucky few who can rise above our primitive constraints untold riches await...

signed

your friends on Wall Street

Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I would be surprised if the Netflix data contain enough information to identify all relevant human biases. Unlike chromodynamics, the Netflix data are selected for ease of data collection rather than for explanatory power.

Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I want to clarify my above comment in light of Eliezer's article about reductionism:http://www.overcomingbias.c...

The Netflix data which consists of client's movie choices contains implicitly all the biases that influence those choices(that's my assumption).

So you don't need to program in the biases explicitly. In the same way that Eliezer's chromodynamic 747 model would contain all facts about airflow implicitly.

So if we have a perfect analyser of the data we should be able to make optimal predictions without the need to explicitly factor in biases.

Does that make sense?

Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Regarding the Netflix prize:

I was wondering, if a perfect bayesian mind analysed the data would it discover all the human biases that are influencing/contributing to it? If we program in these biases in addition to analysing the data statistically aren't we counting the same thing twice?

Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I plan to keep it infrequently mentioned, as I don't have much of an idea how increased awareness of it would affect my ability to profit from it.

Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Yes, please, what is that "one infrequently mentioned result"? :)

Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Prospect Theory? Which suggests that investors would take riskier actions as a market trends downward. After all there hasn't been a run on a bank to invest into it. Or in evolutionary terms, one will run from a lion at slightest provocation, but will take their time hunting/gathering.

Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

What's the one infrequently-mentioned result?