Hearst data mining challenge

hearstchallenge.com

14 points·helwr··6 comments

I get sick to my stomach each time I see a contest like this. All risk is born by the participants, and no matter the outcome, the only result for the contest runner is a demonstrably larger bottom line.

I believe that to have paid professionals perform a similar level of work, the price point would be well over the main prize of 25,000.

I think it's a fairly clever attempt at getting something for nothing. Also a fairly desperate tactic, but amusing none the less. What do they have to lose, right?

"The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks."

Jeff Hammerbacher

Yeah, but you know what? I more than DOUBLED my salary by leaving breast cancer research and spending my time thinking about ads. So fuck anybody who has a problem with that. Blah blah blah make a difference and work on a deadly disease... or have the financial ability to go snowboarding and have savings and own a home.

Second, I'm not sure someone who started at an ibank and then went to fb has much room to throw stones.

Assuming that the people managing this challenge are the same ones as those that did the previous Hearst Challenge, I'll stay far away from it. They don't think through the rules, and change them on the fly. Last time, at one stage, the leader in the challenge gave up and quit.

It's amusing that the Hearst family made its fortune mining gold. Just 150 years later, they're mining data.

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