Hi there. My name is Cameron Marlow and this is my personal weblog. Yeah, I said w00t, and I meant it. Just look at that expression on my face: serious, like a hernia. I received my Ph.D. at the MIT Media Laboratory on the topic of social networks, incentives, media contagion and weblogs. I also spent some time at Facebook where I led the Data Science team.

People often ask why my weblog is named “overstated” or what the “cameron factor” is. For many years, unbeknownst to me, I was a compulsive exaggerator. Every time I estimated a number, I would inflate or deflate the value accordingly to make my point stronger. My friends took notice and starting observed that this exaggeration was very regular, almost always by a factor of 2.5. This value was deemed the cameron factor and I became aware of my problem. Since then I have lost fewer bets, gotten in less fights, and been more successful in dating, and I have my friends to thank.

If you’re interested in my academic pursuits, I keep a much more static academic home