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OT: Netflix playlists are getting so specific it's *something*


In the last few weeks I've noticed that my Netflix playlists (which appears as labelled horizontal rows of suggestions in the main interface) are getting spookily detailed and accurate about my tastes. So whereas I used to get playlists like 'Action Movies' or maybe Critically Acclaimed Dramas' I now get things like:

'Visually Striking Cerebral Movies' [Damn it, that sounds like my sweetspot/shit, and lo the specific recommendations *were* excellent and intriguing]
'Critically Acclaimed Emotional Auteur Cinema'
'Romantic Independent Dramas'
'Critically Acclaimed Cerebral Independent Movies'

Not to mention that I now get a playlist for:

"Dysfunctional Family Movies'

which replicates a section title that (legendarily great) Scarecrow Video in Seattle used decades ago and that seemed almost unimaginably specific and 'cool'-that-it even-existed at the time. I'm not sure whether I should be impressed or freaked out by Netflix seemingly effortlessly assimilating the accumulated wisdom of Video stores past but that's what recent upgrades in their algorithms seem to have done.

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'Visually Striking Cerebral Movies' [Damn it, that sounds like my sweetspot/shit, and lo the specific recommendations *were* excellent and intriguing]
'Critically Acclaimed Emotional Auteur Cinema'
'Romantic Independent Dramas'
'Critically Acclaimed Cerebral Independent Movies'

Not to mention that I now get a playlist for:

"Dysfunctional Family Movies'

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The machines know us better than we know ourselves. Are we supposed to be impressed....or fearful? I don't know exactly how an algorithim works but perhaps plot summaries and keywords are entered in from the movies you HAVE watched to predict the movies you WILL watch.

I just might beat the machines. I mean. my favorite movies range from "Psycho" to "Love Actually." Go try and figure THAT out with an algorithm.

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