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I recently went on a very stupid little mini mission: I tried to hide as many user reviews that I could. I have grown sick of seeing a random person’s review of books, movies, video games, and whatever else. Some of this is nostalgia—I miss the days of

Everyone hates Californians. Hey, I get it, I live here, and I hate Californians. It’s an absurd state, filled with absurd people, often doing absurd things and waiting in line to do them. That’s part of what makes it great. If it wasn’t absurd, it’d probably

The inventor of the audio cassette, Lou Ottens, died this past week. My favorite quote from him captures the revolution that cassettes were, “Everybody could put music in their pocket.” Growing up, my dad was big into mix tapes. It seemed like for every road trip we took—and there

It’s right there in the name, “guilty.” Sure, you can listen to this album, read this book, watch this movie, enjoy this TV show, or whatever, but you shouldn’t be proud of it. In fact, you should only enjoy it with a side of shame. And you know

There’s a running joke that Netflix creates its shows by mashing up its viewer’s search history, like some sort of game of algorithmic Mad Libs. Let’s see, this week we have a [spins wheel] teen [spins wheel] mystery [spins wheel] with aliens. I think this concept comes

At some level, most of us interact with discovery algorithms on a daily basis. They take the form of “new music for you” playlists, “Picks for you” movies, or “Recommended” books. These tastemaker algorithms are supposed to look at what you enjoy, then recommend new and exciting things to you.