Drawing Algorithms
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An algorithm, drawn by a 23-year-old female law student in Germany.

And explain to me what you drew. I was thinking that for me an algorithm, I don't know, for me probably works like a bit of multiple choice and a binary code. So that you think about it, yes, I have a choice in the beginning, so a, b, c, d and select something from it and then it is looked at, with which frequency I select which answer and with the next stage I get from the associated category only, filtered, offers from the options, which I have given particularly frequently. So, if I say, for example, okay, I prefer offer a, then I only get suggestions from a and maybe b and c do not interest me at all, then c is no longer suggested to me at all. So this is user information on the left side? I would say yes. It's an offer, so the offer a, b, c, d and the user just selects something from it and then the algorithm is used to evaluate which information he uses most frequently and the offer is then adapted to it. Is that an a? that is an a. A2 is that? That's an a2, because that's the next level. Because there the input information is already processed. Good, super. And here would be... Then why does the arrow go from the lower to there, so to speak? Because, because of me we say: That's a category. That's what I know - that's sport. I am now interested in football and handball and I don't care about ski jumping. And then I only get football and handball and no ski jumping. Okay. Great. Exactly, and that's the next group. That's news because of me. I'm more interested in environmental protection than in business and that's why I get the environmental news rather than the latest figures on the stock market. Okay. Generally speaking, how did you learn about how algorithms work? I think, by the way, somehow in the area of work. So I'm at a chair of communication and internet law and somehow in that context I think an algorithm came out. Can you specify in more detail how this is done in... I think my boss once wrote something about it, I had to proofread it and I said: "I can't do that if I don't know how it works". In this context I took a look at it. Did you look at it and did he explain it to you or did you inform yourself about it? I rather informed myself about it. Okay. And did that go quite well? That actually went quite well. So you find there already... So depending on how deep you want to go there, you already find information about how it works. Okay.