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357 points pyduan | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.216s | source
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aetherson ◴[] No.8719517[source]
I enjoyed playing with the graphs and everything, but I question whether this model has much relevance to the real world. Is there a strong reason to believe that these effects would survive a model of "I want to move" that is not solely based on "too many people unlike me live near by" and/or "not enough people unlike me live near by"? Indeed, is there a strong reason to believe that a binary modality of "I'm happy/unhappy," (the post gestures in the direction of a third mode, "I'm neither happy nor unhappy," but in fact in their simulations that third mode is indistinguishable from "happy") is a good abstraction of people's moving decisions?

The data paper they posted a link to suggests that there is unlikely to be an equilibrium, contra the message of this post.

It seems like it's more an explanation of a mathematical model and a prescriptive political position, rather than a description of anything real in society.

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1. slipjack ◴[] No.8719635[source]
Sociological studies have found this to happen pretty often. A (very readable) study of tipping points can be found in There Goes the Neighborhood (http://www.amazon.com/There-Goes-Neighborhood-Tensions-Neigh...).