Create Your Own Algorithm Now (or Get Sucked Helplessly Into Theirs)
Every business out there uses algorithms. Most use several. The most successful ones out there — the Googles, Amazons and Facebooks of the world — use countless.
You guessed it, even we at Presenthood use algorithms. Impressed?
Don’t be. Here’s why.
Algorithms, it turns out, can be pretty simple, and while they’ve been used to carry out wonderful events, they’re also responsible for history’s most tragic misfortunes.
If this sounds nerdy and dry, I promise it will all make sense in a moment.
I quite literally had an eye-opening experience minutes ago when I consulted the dictionary.
Algorithms, I had always assumed, involved complex, mysterious mathematics programmed by geniuses and churned out continuously by supercomputers.
While that certainly can be true, it doesn’t need to be true.
Here’s what Merriam-Webster says:
The simplicity of that definition, as I mentioned, opened my eyes.
Here’s why.
I thought I knew what an algorithm was. When I figured I ought to find out what the definition actually was, I went to the place I thought would be the foremost source for clarifying truth — Merriam-Webster.
Why did I think that? The people at Merriam-Webster, over the course of nearly 200 years, have developed algorithms to place themselves in a position of distinction in my mind, and made it easy to find the definition of every word in the English language.
In this case, appropriately, it was “algorithm.”
At its core, the simplicity is astounding.
Identify a problem, or an end, then provide a step-by-step procedure to overcome or reach it.
Here’s where it gets tricky.
An algorithm is not a mission statement. It’s not necessarily found in corporate values, an Instagram bio or shared openly at a shareholders meeting.
While a mission statement is what you might show about yourself to the world, an algorithm is what you’re actually doing.
Understanding this distinction, and knowing how to identify it, is extremely important for anyone trying to live a deliberate and purposeful life — and bring themselves into alignment with a perception of their best selves.
Let’s look at an obvious, and near comical, example from the not-so-distant past.
Over the course of 16 years, Enron defrauded investors and employees out of an estimated $11 billion, culminating in an international spectacle and subsequent crash in 2001.
Losses were concealed, money was rerouted, reports were falsified and investigators were misled.
And what were Enron’s governing values?
"Respect, Integrity, Communication and Excellence."
In hindsight, the blatant hypocrisy is obvious, is it not?
Of course, few examples are as clear-cut as that.
Others can be much more nuanced — perhaps operating two or more often conflicting algorithms.
Cosmopolitan magazine has a 50+-year history of serving as [in their words] “an agent for social change, encouraging women everywhere to go after what they want.”
Problem: Society needs changing
Solution: We offer women the encouragement they need to go after what they want.
While that algorithm may be active at Cosmopolitan, it certainly doesn’t keep a magazine afloat, especially in today’s competitive publishing environment. The magazine has been often maligned for the complicated relationship between its editorial and advertising practices.
Feminist icon Gloria Steinem has accused women’s magazines of existing, in fact, “to create a desire for products, teach how to use products, and make products a crucial part of gaining social approval, pleasing a husband, and performing as a homemaker.”
Or, in other words, many feel that the “end” is not being fulfilled by the step-by-step procedure prescribed within Cosmo’s pages.
Clearly, women’s magazines are not alone in this — men’s magazines (or truthfully, nearly any magazines) are just as often guilty of the same inconsistencies, as are far too many of today’s news media organizations.
Perhaps the largest algorithmic elephant in today’s room is Facebook.
In May 2012, Facebook filed for its initial public offering. In the process of doing so, founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter detailing the reasons he had created the social media site, and his hopes for the future.
In the letter, Zuckerberg said the following:
“At Facebook, we build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships.”
Can you say that Facebook (or Instagram, Twitter, TikTok or any other social media network) has done that for you? Has it “[extended your] capacity to build and maintain relationships”?
I’ve recently been reading an amazing book called Digital Minimalism, written by professor of computer science Cal Newport. I had read his previous book Deep Work on the effects of the digital age on professional productivity and focus, but in his second work, he opted for addressing how it is affecting our relationships.
After interviewing thousands of people, he found that — in the context of this blog post — most people were chasing the mission statement Facebook offered, but finding that its algorithms provided something different altogether.
“No one, of course, signed up for this loss of control. They downloaded the apps and set up accounts for good reasons, only to discover, with grim irony, that these services were beginning to undermine the very values that made them appealing in the first place: they joined Facebook to stay in touch with friends across the country, and then ended up unable to maintain an uninterrupted conversation with the friend sitting across the table.“
Mr. Zuckerberg’s end, “extending people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships,” is very often simply not happening. The company’s mission is not aligned perfectly with its actual procedures.
Clearly, it’s not that black and white — I have experienced many useful and rewarding benefits of Facebook.
But if I rely purely on Facebook’s algorithms to show me what relationships to build and maintain, I have personally seen that the connections that are made are often at odds with the ones I value most.
“So, Coy, what’s your point?”
According to the geniuses at Merriam-Webster, you too can have your own algorithm. All you need to do is determine the problem you want to solve or objective you want to achieve, then map out the step-by-step procedure for doing so.
Of course, your algorithm may, and certainly will, conflict with those of the many businesses or entities with which you interact. In fact, many of these companies have a vested interest in keeping you entirely from developing your own algorithms.
So, every “Suggested video,” “You might also like this,” or “Click here” you see — you know what that is? It’s an attempt to place their algorithms over yours.
And here’s the beauty and secret of this equation — your algorithms will beat theirs every time. Why? Because while yours are built and maintained proactively, theirs are only reactive.
In other words, they only control the outputs they have access to, based on the inputs you give them.
No in-y, no out-y.
While they’ve gotten really good at making you want to stay within their algorithms, you still maintain the supreme power of choice. Theirs will always do what they’re programmed to do. Yours will do what you tell them to do.
If you stop scrolling through Instagram, they can’t serve you as many ads.
If you decide that you’re only going to play Xbox for 30 minutes a day, Microsoft has less control over your time, and you’re able to spend that time more productively.
Twitter can’t [yet] force you to keep arguing with anyone, no matter their outrageous political argument, preferred sports team or opinion on the ending of the latest Marvel movie.
Let’s try it:
List a problem you’re facing, or an objective you have:
___________________________________
Ok, now list out several steps you’ll need to follow to accomplish that:
- _____________________________
- _____________________________
- _____________________________
- _____________________________
There you have it. You’re algorithming (not a word) already. While clearly this is going to take some introspection and discipline to get right, you’re now armed with the language and knowledge to go about your day, identifying the algorithms that surround you and making informed decisions.
If you’ve seen this in your own life and want to share how you’ve identified it or what you’ve done to curb it, feel free to do so in the comments below. Otherwise, shut our algorithm down and get out of here. We love having you here, but you have better things to do!