Writing

Essays and analyses on data, machine learning, and the industry.

The Method of Reflections: Reading Economic Complexity from Trade Flows

Economic complexity

Spectral methods

Python

Trade data

Hidalgo & Hausmann’s algorithm turns a binary country-product trade matrix into rankings of economic capability. This post walks through the method end-to-end: the iterative definition, the eigenvector form, an implementation against 30 years of Harvard Atlas data, a concrete trace of China’s electronics rise, and two failure modes the original paper leaves on the table.

Jun 5, 2026

22 min

The Anatomy of Amazon: A Retailer That Earns Like a Cloud Company

Equity analysis

Data visualization

Python

Amazon sells $717B of goods and services a year, but most of its profit comes from a segment that is barely a sixth of its revenue. A data-driven look at where Amazon’s money comes from, where it goes, and how that has shifted.

May 31, 2026

19 min

Categories

The Method of Reflections: Reading Economic Complexity from Trade Flows

The Anatomy of Amazon: A Retailer That Earns Like a Cloud Company