I know this is an anecdote and very subjective but I've really never discovered something that I loved with a recommendation algorithm.

Whether it be videos, music, livestreams, books... Everything that I've considered a "10/10" has been recommended by a human or a non-personalized algorithm—such as "Most popular". Whether that's a direct recommendation by a friend, a comment on HackerNews, someone that I already follow that mentioned the thing in question.

My RSS client fetches my YouTube "subscriptions" and it's been years since I've been on the homepage.

Surely I'm not alone but it surely feels like it.

I’ve had some great recommendations from YouTube. For example the video below, called “The Squirrel and the Peanut”, which by just adding some well chosen classical music to some found footage of a squirrel getting a peanut turns it into a moving story of overcoming your fears told in a mere 1:32.

Watch with the sound turned up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ1ZYGHmtN8

I agree that the algorithm isn't always the best. Interestingly however I occasionally get "legendary pulls" (I think that's a gatcha term?) on youtube - a 1990s stop motion video of some legendary niche Japanese animator, or some other 8+ years old video in 240p that's absolutely amazing.

But "fortunately" for me, on my main account, my feed is 80%+ decent stuff - science channels, AOPA safety videos - stuff like that. But my other account has absolutely terrible suggestions on the algorithm, so it probably varies a ton on how much and what you watch.

> Everything that I've considered a "10/10" has been recommended by a human

Have you ever found a 10/10 on your own?

If so it's possible you were recommended that by an algorithm but you just didn't register it, because a human recommendation is more of a memorable event.

Most of the great music I've discovered is thanks to Spotify's "Play song radio" feature.