Lada Adamic is an assistant professor in the School of Information and the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, at the University of Michigan, with a courtesy appointment in EECS to boot. Her research interests center on information dynamics in networks: how information diffuses, how it can be found, and how it influences the evolution of a network’s structure. She worked previously in Hewlett-Packard’s Information Dynamics Lab. Her projects have included identifying expertise in online question answer forums, studying the dynamics of viral marketing, and characterizing the structure in blogs and other online communities.

4 thoughts on “About

  • 2025/02/07 at 17:12
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    Lada, I know that you and I did not know each other well, but a friend just sent me a link to your two posts about retirement.

    I loved them so much!

    They ring so true to my own experience. I especially liked the way you described the pluses and minuses of status loss.

    When you and I knew each other, status was very important to me. But as I grew more frustrated with both Facebook and academia, I began to question the role of status in my own life. I experienced a full-blown mid-life crisis. I severed ties with Facebook, withdrew from my life in academia, and set out to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail :

    https://jimmyjamhikingclub.com/2021/02/11/why/

    But what I didn’t realize at the time was that I was just quitting one “impressive” thing for another “impressive” thing. It was still status-seeking.

    It took me 800 miles to finally come to terms with this. I quit the PCT and went home and initiated a plan to leave my work life.

    I am technically still employed in academia, but I have essentially been quasi-retired since then, using up sabbatical credits and course releases at the end of my career that I never took when things were fast and furious.

    As I have ceased both teaching and research, my own status has dwindled away and for that I feel both sad and elated.

    I worry that I should be doing something big to save humanity and at the same time I feel relieved that people no longer recognize me.

    But I have also found that both of these feelings have declined with time.

    More and more, I just feel content.

    I still experience self-questioning about my departure from work life, but it feels more abstract. What is real is my own aesthetic experience with Nature and the small difference I make in the lives of my friends, family, and neighbors.

    Lada, I always admired you in your work life, but thanks to these two lovely posts of yours, I feel even more admiration for you in your post-work life.

    I’m glad you are getting to swim and explore and spend time with people you love.

    It is enough.

    Best,
    james

  • 2025/02/07 at 18:24
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    James, I think you expressed things better in your comment than I did in those two long blog posts! I remember wondering what you were up to, but not reaching out. Maybe if I had I would have been wiser sooner. Or maybe it takes making the journey (on the PCT or elsewhere) on one’s own. I really appreciate your insights and the experience you’ve shared. Your post about why the PCT through-hike is powerful. Thank you.

  • 2025/02/12 at 23:58
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    Hi Lada…not sure if you remember but we met at Meta a few times and even schemed on some potential collaborations, none of which came to be. But I was a huge admirer of yours while I was there and partly because of just how much I appreciate this blog, I think an even bigger admirer now. It’s such a joyful & wonderful & brilliant little corner of the internet and I’m always so grateful whenever I come here and spend a little time. Thank you so much for sharing it and hope we run into each other at some point.

  • 2025/02/13 at 19:34
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    Hi Brandon, of course I remember. Those would have been fun, broadly-useful, and insight-yielding projects, and I’m really sorry we didn’t get to work on them together. I greatly admire your drive for transparency and ability to not just speak eloquently about it, but make it (and design-related side projects) happen too.

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