Simon and I wrote an invited commentary for PNAS that was just published. In it, we talk about the broader context around a new PNAS paper on rank and hierarchies called “Emergence of hierarchy in networked endorsement dynamics”, written by Mari Kawakatsu, Phil Chodrow, Nicole Eikmeier, and Dan Larremore.
PNAS did not go for our top two choices for the commentary title (“Give a dog a (good) name” or “Some have greatness thrust upon them”) and instead went with the more formal choice “From equality to hierarchy”. It was pretty fun to write a more light-hearted piece than we usually get to do in academic writing. The paper by Mari and everyone is very cool, so it was fun to endorse their work.
The commentary is available via PNAS here (or fulltext here)
