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Thanks for that. Now I have 530 episodes in my podcast queue :)

DantesKite 5y ago
On a side note, I've always wish there was an API that could recommend media content. Like you could just plug it into any playlist of songs, movies, or books, have it do some algorithmic analysis, and spit out what you would probably find fascinating.
- ghaff 5y ago
  You've basically described recommendation engines generally and they tend to deliver mediocre to awful results for a bunch of different reasons. I remember hearing talks on the topic over a decade ago and things haven't really gotten much better--and my sense is that most people have given up on actually creating a good engine.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    I’ve found much better results using your lists to find people with some overlap, and then looking at what they have. Which is basically what HN is.
    - timbeccue 5y ago
      Do recommendation algorithms not take this into account already? Perhaps privacy policies make it harder to automate this effectively.
      - bombcar 5y ago
        The famous ones may, but it ends up taking into account "what do we want you to see/listen/look at" much more into account.
        ghaff 5y ago
        The original Netflix prize also, it turned out, wasn't really implemented for a number of reasons. But one of them was apparently that Netflix doesn't necessarily want to give you the best recommendations; it wants you to keep your subscription. There's certainly some overlap between those objectives but they're not the same thing.
        bombcar 5y ago
        They're also incentivized to show you things that cost them "nothing" or "less" than others things - and if they KNOW the things you'd like to watch it's better for them to string those out so you keep subscribed. The perfect Netflix customer is one always on the cusp of cancelling from lack of use but never actually does ...
        ghaff 5y ago
        In addition to the cost angle, they're also incentivized to push you towards exclusives. Things you can watch on other services (assuming you subscribe and know they're there) are much less of a hook to keep you on Netflix.
        mortenlarsen 5y ago
        I have played ~5 seconds of one random episode from the front page on my Netflix profile since i subscribed around 2016. This was just to verify that it worked. It still chuckles me up when they send me an e-mail once in a while, about what I might like based my past viewing preferences. Note: My GF, has a profile that she uses sometimes, but mine haven't been used since the account was created.
    - ghaff 5y ago
      It depends what the overlap is of course. Something like music probably has a big age component in what people like for example. But, yes, in general friends with at least reasonably similar preferences to myself are almost certainly a better source of recommendations for video, music, and books than a recommendation engine.
- zdragnar 5y ago
  I remember when Pandora was attempting to compute the "DNA" of a song (assorted classifications like key, tempo, style) and recommend music based on that. You could then get a "station" based on a single song, and fine-tune it by adding more or disliking songs as they came up. The end result was underwhelming- it never really captured the characteristics that I actually liked about particular songs, and ended up being crappy or so narrowly tuned that it lacked enough variety to be interesting. The concept is still around, but with less scientific sounding fluff and, I think, more relaxed parameters for recommendations.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    Did Pandora change at some point?
    - zdragnar 5y ago
      The last time I used it, I don't recall seeing the "DNA" nonsense, or being able to get a list of characteristics that they used to build a station around... It's possible that the interface simply changed and I didn't look hard enough for it though.
      - nefitty 5y ago
        It's still using the same type of algorithm
        culi 5y ago
        Pandora is based off of the "Music Genome Project" which was a massive effort that took tons of music efforts to make happen. Experts literally sat down and deconstructed individual songs by hand and gave them tags. It's truly a historic achievement and it's almost sad how the massive effort mainly resulted in a private database that's primarily used for a failed Spotify competitor
        nefitty 5y ago
xattt 5y ago
I worked through whatever the length of the queue was in 2017 over the course of a summer and a long driving commute :)
fknorangesite 5y ago
It's a really, really great show. You won't regret it.

On a side note, I've always wish there was an API that could recommend media content. Like you could just plug it into any playlist of songs, movies, or books, have it do some algorithmic analysis, and spit out what you would probably find fascinating.

ghaff 5y ago
You've basically described recommendation engines generally and they tend to deliver mediocre to awful results for a bunch of different reasons. I remember hearing talks on the topic over a decade ago and things haven't really gotten much better--and my sense is that most people have given up on actually creating a good engine.
- bombcar 5y ago
  I’ve found much better results using your lists to find people with some overlap, and then looking at what they have. Which is basically what HN is.
  - timbeccue 5y ago
    Do recommendation algorithms not take this into account already? Perhaps privacy policies make it harder to automate this effectively.
    - bombcar 5y ago
      The famous ones may, but it ends up taking into account "what do we want you to see/listen/look at" much more into account.
      - ghaff 5y ago
        The original Netflix prize also, it turned out, wasn't really implemented for a number of reasons. But one of them was apparently that Netflix doesn't necessarily want to give you the best recommendations; it wants you to keep your subscription. There's certainly some overlap between those objectives but they're not the same thing.
        bombcar 5y ago
        They're also incentivized to show you things that cost them "nothing" or "less" than others things - and if they KNOW the things you'd like to watch it's better for them to string those out so you keep subscribed. The perfect Netflix customer is one always on the cusp of cancelling from lack of use but never actually does ...
        ghaff 5y ago
        In addition to the cost angle, they're also incentivized to push you towards exclusives. Things you can watch on other services (assuming you subscribe and know they're there) are much less of a hook to keep you on Netflix.
        mortenlarsen 5y ago
        I have played ~5 seconds of one random episode from the front page on my Netflix profile since i subscribed around 2016. This was just to verify that it worked. It still chuckles me up when they send me an e-mail once in a while, about what I might like based my past viewing preferences. Note: My GF, has a profile that she uses sometimes, but mine haven't been used since the account was created.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    It depends what the overlap is of course. Something like music probably has a big age component in what people like for example. But, yes, in general friends with at least reasonably similar preferences to myself are almost certainly a better source of recommendations for video, music, and books than a recommendation engine.
zdragnar 5y ago
I remember when Pandora was attempting to compute the "DNA" of a song (assorted classifications like key, tempo, style) and recommend music based on that. You could then get a "station" based on a single song, and fine-tune it by adding more or disliking songs as they came up. The end result was underwhelming- it never really captured the characteristics that I actually liked about particular songs, and ended up being crappy or so narrowly tuned that it lacked enough variety to be interesting. The concept is still around, but with less scientific sounding fluff and, I think, more relaxed parameters for recommendations.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  Did Pandora change at some point?
  - zdragnar 5y ago
    The last time I used it, I don't recall seeing the "DNA" nonsense, or being able to get a list of characteristics that they used to build a station around... It's possible that the interface simply changed and I didn't look hard enough for it though.
    - nefitty 5y ago
      It's still using the same type of algorithm
      - culi 5y ago
        Pandora is based off of the "Music Genome Project" which was a massive effort that took tons of music efforts to make happen. Experts literally sat down and deconstructed individual songs by hand and gave them tags. It's truly a historic achievement and it's almost sad how the massive effort mainly resulted in a private database that's primarily used for a failed Spotify competitor
        nefitty 5y ago

xattt 5y ago

I worked through whatever the length of the queue was in 2017 over the course of a summer and a long driving commute :)

fknorangesite 5y ago

It's a really, really great show. You won't regret it.