It is argued that Pep Guardiola’s 2009/10 FC Barcelona team were the best to ever play. With domestic and international successes culminating in 6 more pieces of silverware added to their trophy cabinet, it’s hard to argue with this statement. 

But what was it that gave them the extreme edge? Some key factors highlighted in this analysis demonstrate Guardiola’s use of tiki-taka or total football style play (made famous by the Dutch in the 1974 World Cup), with Barcelona playing the great majority of their passes horizontally, rather than forward and backwards. This strategy worked as the team managed to play, as a whole, in much more attacking positions than other teams apart from Real Madrid, who were found to become more pressing in later periods of games. 

On top of this, Xavi, who is often regarded as one of the greatest ever midfielders, recorded the highest centrality of any player, further unlocking the teams attacking potential. Despite these strengths, Barcelona, who play in a very tight knit formation, tend to concede more when this structure breakdowns, whereas Valencia have the opposite result, suggesting that the style of football isn’t bullet proof.

Barcelona are clear outliers when it comes to their style of play.

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As the US 2020 presidential campaign starts to heat up, people across America are choosing sides and gearing up their support for their elected candidates. 

Although the team here at White Box won’t be voting in the US election, we love discussing data and as such, were interested when we came across this piece of analysis. ActBlue, which is an online fundraising platform for the Democratic Party released a huge amount of data on small donors. Of the political candidates, Bernie Sanders is by far the most popular Democratic candidate, particularly among small donors of which he now has the support of over 1 million individuals! Drilling down into this discussion point further, we looked at ActBlue’s 2018 Election Cycle in Review and found that the average small donor gives just $34.50. Although it doesn’t seem like much, when there’re almost 5 million individual donors giving that amount, it soon adds up. In the 2018 election cycle alone, ActBlue raised over $1.6bn from small donors. 

The analysis also includes interesting graphs which identify how people are voting with reference to their income and educational attainment levels. When looking at the graphs displayed, Sanders again appears to be an outlier, with a strong negative correlation identifiable between income level and voter support - that is, Bernie is a favourite amongst the poorest and working class people. A similar trend is also prevalent in the second graph, with those without BA’s representing the greatest proportion of votes, although this negative relationship isn’t quite as strong. 

A powerful feature of this article is the ability to choose your own occupation to see where those in the same job as you are placing their support for US Democratic candidates. Funnily enough, Bernie comes out on top (again) for data analysts. Of the top occupations for Bernie however, it is those working as solar photovoltaic installers (74%) leading the pack, followed relatively closely by vet assistants (63%) and bartenders (59%). 

Is Bernie the right choice for America’s 46th President, or will the powers of Republican big money propel Trump into another tenure? 

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ActBlue 2018 report.

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 A study conducted in the UK found that in 2017, 35% of renters were aged between 25 - 34 years old. Despite the media often portraying the struggle of young people to enter the property market without the help of family, it is actually all demographics that are being affected by the growing ability to own a home. 

With more renters in the market, individuals and families across all generations are struggling to ‘set their roots’ in their home. For instance, families are under stress as many landlords don’t offer ongoing lease security, meaning their children could be separated from their friends as a result of a forced property move. On the other hand, older generations are often not considered for mortgages because of the likelihood of reduced fund inflows in retirement years, resulting in more shared housing situations. 

These issues are pertinent to the need for an understanding of both public and private sector housing demands. Better management tools are needed to hold landlords to account and data gathered on how well people know their rights when it comes to renting in the private sector. Through the improved provision of informational resources, the monitoring of landlord behaviours and the establishment of affordable housing options, we may see a reduction in the levels of current housing stress.

Private renting sector by age of household reference person (%), 2007 and 2017, UK

Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/ukprivaterentedsector/2018

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With the growing maturity of AI and machine learning, it is only a matter of time before people start considering the implications of using these technologies in broader society. This short film by the BBC explores the idea that, for argument's sake, AI could replace governments. The argument to this point is that, unlike the humans who run governments around the world, AI is not privy to scandals, corruption and popularity contests which popularise short-term solutions at the expense of long-term, sustainable policy in the areas that really matter, like climate change. These decisions are based off impartial facts and data. 

However, while we rejoice in the thought of Donald Trump being replaced by an all wise and knowing AI bot, it’s important to note that the computational powers of these technologies stop at the point where, arguably, humanity starts. That is, it can measure the costs of hospital treatment for an elderly person after they retire, and objectively conclude that this is a poor investment for the government, but it cannot measure the value of that life based on the opinions of those closest to them. Hence, AI cannot differentiate between what’s right and wrong. 

The thought experiment concludes by informing us that despite the powers of AI, they are built by humans and therefore have a tendency to be exposed to human biases.  Resulting, these biases could perpetuate existing flaws in political and societal systems, making things worse, rather than better. Despite this, it’s important that we understand the powers of AI and how its integration in systems and processes can aid human decision making in traditional, and new ways, so that we are empowered, rather than suffocated, by it.

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 This fascinating and thought provoking article discusses human consciousness and the reality that we are all simply data processing machines without matter beyond our physical presences and structures. 

Despite the harrowing nature of the message entailed, the author does shed some light, drawing on a physicist’s work which suggests there is a state of matter called perceptronium - atoms arranged so they can process information and consequently give rise to subjectivity. 

Weirdly enough, this hypothesis suggests, through the use of dense mathematics, that devices like thermostats and DVD players might in fact have consciousness or be privy to having a subjective self! 

With recent exposures like the Cambridge Analytica scandle, we’ve seen how easy it can be to manipulate people with technology. Although theirs is a dark story, it really does highlight the power of understanding the data you have about your customers and utilising the tools and techniques for talking to them about relevant topics in a timely manner. In the case of consciousness, it could entail the empowering of people through their own data, creating greater purpose and pushing the envelope to discover what we truly value and desire.

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