All of the "discoverability" algorithms are specifically and fundamentally about sifting through the millions to find the few that are preferred. That is their many-billion-dollar industry purpose. Spotify does a fantastic job with this, for me.

> will often just opt for whatever is popular.

Are you suggesting that people consume media they don't like? I'm not familiar with anyone that does this. I personally skip if I don't like a song even a little.

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teucris 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> All of the "discoverability" algorithms are specifically and fundamentally about sifting through the millions to find the few that are preferred.

They are fundamentally about finding the content that will generate the most revenue. That changes the dynamics quite a bit.

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nomel 7 hours ago | parent [-]

You're not wrong, but the need to please the user is still paramount, otherwise they'll just do something else. This is why TikTok is eating everyone's lunch.

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Ritewut 7 hours ago | parent [-]

I don't agree with this and to answer the question you originally asked me, I do think users are consuming things they don't actually enjoy. The goal isn't to please the user, the goal is to not bore the user. If you talk to people I'm sure you'll find a lot of the music they listened to isn't "enjoyed" so much as it is inoffensive background noise.

	▲	nomel 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's not surprising that some people are mindless consumers, but it's not useful to assume the majority is, especially of paying customers, and competition exists.

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JohnFen 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> I'm not familiar with anyone that does this.

I see this a lot, actually. People put things on in the background, for instance, and don't really care if they like it or not (as long as they don't hate it). They just want noise. Or people just scrolling through their feeds without genuinely liking much in them.

In the old days, this was also how the majority of television was watched. People watched TV out of habit, and frequently watched things they didn't like because choices were limited and often there was nothing they actually like on. Thus all the complaints in the day about how "there's nothing on TV".

People are willing to sacrifice quite a lot of real enjoyment for convenience.