A mechanism or tactic · 1995 · Retail
Clerks beat algorithms
The difference between being known by somebody who was paying attention on purpose and being modelled by a system that has your history. Same information, different relationship.
The distinction the whole site turns on. A clerk who notices what you rented has one motive - you coming back. An algorithm optimising for watch time has yours, but it does not know what you rented. The second is not better at caring. It is better at correlating, and the human experience of the difference is the entire subject.
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