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I've had a pretty excellent time at Netflix myself. The business model is refreshingly simple: people pay to watch shows they'll enjoy. As a result, our work i

I've had a pretty excellent time at Netflix myself. The business model is refreshingly simple: people pay to watch shows they'll enjoy. As a result, our work is pretty aligned with our customers. No annoying ads, no selling data, no focusing on whales, no anti-consumer dark patterns (or at least not many). And Reed is an excellent CEO, imo. He's tried his best to build a culture that treats everyone as human and intelligent - minimal red tape, lots of flexibility, wide transparency with data & strategy, very focused business, and he even encourages middle management to cut down on big meetings. Lastly, it's nice to work at a place where you can count on everyone to be competent. It's expensive to pay well and not hire juniors, and it can also mean that 'senior' employees end up doing 'junior' work, but it also means that your colleagues are usually solid, which is nice. Not to say everything is perfect, but overall I've been satisfied with Netflix. I still might leave for another company someday, but if I do, it will because that other company is also great, not because Netflix is sucky to work for.

xiphias2 5y ago
,, The business model is refreshingly simple: people pay to watch shows they'll enjoy'' I believe that this is true, but I also have a feeling that the main goal for netflix is maximizing views, and not maximizing the experience per supscriber weighted by user spend. In other words I would prefer less, but very well thought out and executed movies that focus on having a great story (like House of Cards until the main character was kicked out of the series). I would still pay the same amount of money for those few movies than a person who's binging on all new lower quality and lower budget series. I loved the movie Dune for example, where the story made sense, in opposed to Netflix's Brave new world, where even my girlfriend who read the book said that the movie doesn't make any sense, and it has nothing to do with the book itself, and totally ruined it, as the movie series had no story. Can you tell me if Netflix focuses on total views for a movie, or rather tries to estimate the revenue by dividing user spend by the number of movies the user watched?
- AnonHP 5y ago
  >> ,, The business model is refreshingly simple: people pay to watch shows they'll enjoy'' > I believe that this is true, but I also have a feeling that the main goal for netflix is maximizing views, and not maximizing the experience per supscriber weighted by user spend. Not GP, but I believe Netflix has patterns to keep the subscriber in the app for as long as possible, including browsing through the list, adding things to an endless list, moving through the list of content just to avoid the trailer that would autoplay (this was around for years until it brought an option to disable the autoplay)…in other words, Netflix has focused (intentionally or unintentionally) on reducing the amount of actual content streamed while making sure the person isn’t using another streaming service for longer. > …in opposed to Netflix’s Brave new world… There are many titles on Netflix that are marked as Netflix Originals that aren’t produced by Netflix or even show up on Netflix first. Brave New World was a Peacock (the streaming service from NBC) original that was canceled after the first season. It was sometime after this that Netflix bought it and stamped it as a Netflix Original. I have no idea why Netflix bought it or how it relates to the book though.
  - xiphias2 5y ago
    > making sure the person isn’t using another streaming service for longer. Thanks, as I just pay for all available streaming services, I forgot that most people don't view them as orthogonal services...now the whole strategy makes so much more sense. About the Netflix Original comment: it's again only about maximizing viewing time, but at least now I understand the reason. It means ,,not available on other streaming services, stay here''
    - Talanes 5y ago
      Yeah, the strategy doesn't quite have the same oomph when you're already content having a few different streaming services subscribed at a time. If I spend too long browsing Netflix without picking something, I switch apps and leave a mental check against leaving Netflix in the renew rotation, but only because I have a backup already on deck.
- smashed 5y ago
  The auto play of movie trailers while browsing for titles irritates me to the core. It's like I know I can't read the description longer than 3 seconds or else all these moving pictures that I don't want to see are going to start jumping at me. I know it sounds like a 1st world problem but it made the Netflix experience unbearable for me. I was ready to cancel my subscription. Then I learned on this site while reading comments you can turn this off by logging in your account on the web. These *&$ knew only geeks like me would be put off by auto-playng trailers. They knew only geeks like me would find the turn off setting. I hate Netflix, but I'm still paying. I hate myself.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    > The auto play of movie trailers while browsing for titles irritates me to the core. Nevermind trailers, what about when it just starts playing the film while you're reading the description and talking about it? I agree it's infuriating. Always end up doing this ridiculous quick-jumping around back and forth dance, and often end up on mute too if we don't decide quickly. > Then I learned on this site while reading comments you can turn this off by logging in your account on the web. I have 'do not autoplay previews' on in my settings; don't see an option for 'do not autoplay features'.
Sander_Marechal 5y ago
> no anti-consumer dark patterns (or at least not many) There's plenty of those. They removed the star ratings, they don't show IMDB or other external ratings, nonsensical categories, things that still autoplay even with all autoplay options off (e.g. when selecting an episode in a series). They keep producing average to bad content and keep pushing it in front of you without any option to filter it out. And the things they produce that are worth watching are hidden in a stream of junk and cancelled after season 3, usually without a satisfying ending, because Netflix structures their contracts in such a way that they would have to pay a lot more after season 3. And they keep removing non-netflix content. They said themselves, they want to become HBO before HBO can become them. Well, I don't want HBO. I want a Spotify for video content where I can watch everything in one place. Old netflix was just that. I refuse to pay for multiple streaming services at the same time. Yo-ho and raise the flag.
- sofixa 5y ago
  > And they keep removing non-netflix content. I was under the impression they don't have much choice and actually it's the copyright owners pulling their content to have it exclusively on their new shiny streaming service, or at the very least demanding exorbitant amounts from Netflix to allow them to keep certain things (e.g. Friends).
  - thirdsun 5y ago
    You are correct. It's strange to criticize Netflix for owners pulling their content.
- 8ytecoder 5y ago
  They also intentionally don’t integrate with Apple TV - which is what I use to organise all my watchlist in one place. It’s anti-consumer.

xiphias2 5y ago

,, The business model is refreshingly simple: people pay to watch shows they'll enjoy'' I believe that this is true, but I also have a feeling that the main goal for netflix is maximizing views, and not maximizing the experience per supscriber weighted by user spend. In other words I would prefer less, but very well thought out and executed movies that focus on having a great story (like House of Cards until the main character was kicked out of the series). I would still pay the same amount of money for those few movies than a person who's binging on all new lower quality and lower budget series. I loved the movie Dune for example, where the story made sense, in opposed to Netflix's Brave new world, where even my girlfriend who read the book said that the movie doesn't make any sense, and it has nothing to do with the book itself, and totally ruined it, as the movie series had no story. Can you tell me if Netflix focuses on total views for a movie, or rather tries to estimate the revenue by dividing user spend by the number of movies the user watched?

AnonHP 5y ago
>> ,, The business model is refreshingly simple: people pay to watch shows they'll enjoy'' > I believe that this is true, but I also have a feeling that the main goal for netflix is maximizing views, and not maximizing the experience per supscriber weighted by user spend. Not GP, but I believe Netflix has patterns to keep the subscriber in the app for as long as possible, including browsing through the list, adding things to an endless list, moving through the list of content just to avoid the trailer that would autoplay (this was around for years until it brought an option to disable the autoplay)…in other words, Netflix has focused (intentionally or unintentionally) on reducing the amount of actual content streamed while making sure the person isn’t using another streaming service for longer. > …in opposed to Netflix’s Brave new world… There are many titles on Netflix that are marked as Netflix Originals that aren’t produced by Netflix or even show up on Netflix first. Brave New World was a Peacock (the streaming service from NBC) original that was canceled after the first season. It was sometime after this that Netflix bought it and stamped it as a Netflix Original. I have no idea why Netflix bought it or how it relates to the book though.
- xiphias2 5y ago
  > making sure the person isn’t using another streaming service for longer. Thanks, as I just pay for all available streaming services, I forgot that most people don't view them as orthogonal services...now the whole strategy makes so much more sense. About the Netflix Original comment: it's again only about maximizing viewing time, but at least now I understand the reason. It means ,,not available on other streaming services, stay here''
  - Talanes 5y ago
    Yeah, the strategy doesn't quite have the same oomph when you're already content having a few different streaming services subscribed at a time. If I spend too long browsing Netflix without picking something, I switch apps and leave a mental check against leaving Netflix in the renew rotation, but only because I have a backup already on deck.
smashed 5y ago
The auto play of movie trailers while browsing for titles irritates me to the core. It's like I know I can't read the description longer than 3 seconds or else all these moving pictures that I don't want to see are going to start jumping at me. I know it sounds like a 1st world problem but it made the Netflix experience unbearable for me. I was ready to cancel my subscription. Then I learned on this site while reading comments you can turn this off by logging in your account on the web. These *&$ knew only geeks like me would be put off by auto-playng trailers. They knew only geeks like me would find the turn off setting. I hate Netflix, but I'm still paying. I hate myself.
- OJFord 5y ago
  > The auto play of movie trailers while browsing for titles irritates me to the core. Nevermind trailers, what about when it just starts playing the film while you're reading the description and talking about it? I agree it's infuriating. Always end up doing this ridiculous quick-jumping around back and forth dance, and often end up on mute too if we don't decide quickly. > Then I learned on this site while reading comments you can turn this off by logging in your account on the web. I have 'do not autoplay previews' on in my settings; don't see an option for 'do not autoplay features'.

Sander_Marechal 5y ago

> no anti-consumer dark patterns (or at least not many) There's plenty of those. They removed the star ratings, they don't show IMDB or other external ratings, nonsensical categories, things that still autoplay even with all autoplay options off (e.g. when selecting an episode in a series). They keep producing average to bad content and keep pushing it in front of you without any option to filter it out. And the things they produce that are worth watching are hidden in a stream of junk and cancelled after season 3, usually without a satisfying ending, because Netflix structures their contracts in such a way that they would have to pay a lot more after season 3. And they keep removing non-netflix content. They said themselves, they want to become HBO before HBO can become them. Well, I don't want HBO. I want a Spotify for video content where I can watch everything in one place. Old netflix was just that. I refuse to pay for multiple streaming services at the same time. Yo-ho and raise the flag.

sofixa 5y ago
> And they keep removing non-netflix content. I was under the impression they don't have much choice and actually it's the copyright owners pulling their content to have it exclusively on their new shiny streaming service, or at the very least demanding exorbitant amounts from Netflix to allow them to keep certain things (e.g. Friends).
- thirdsun 5y ago
  You are correct. It's strange to criticize Netflix for owners pulling their content.
8ytecoder 5y ago
They also intentionally don’t integrate with Apple TV - which is what I use to organise all my watchlist in one place. It’s anti-consumer.