People fear algorithms like they fear the dark — because they do not understand what lives inside. But an algorithm is just a decision tree. A set of rules someone wrote. And someone can rewrite them.

Every recommendation engine, every feed algorithm, every sorting function carries the biases of its creator. If you build algorithms, you have a responsibility to understand what they optimize for — and what they sacrifice.

Optimize for humans. Always.

If your algorithm produces harmful results, the algorithm is not broken. Your assumptions are. Go back to the data. Go back to the weights. Go back to the question you were really asking.

The answer is always in the inputs.

The most radical act in technology is looking at a system that harms people and changing it. Not because someone told you to. Not because it will be profitable. Because it is right.

You are not powerless against the algorithm. You are its author.

— JP, from the void.