Spending hours on endless side-scrolling rows of Netflix movies or hunting through the forever-long lists of identically rated restaurants on Yelp \u2014 this can\u2019t be the way it\u2019s supposed to work. Part of the whole promise of the internet is that platforms and services would take the web\u2019s infinite supply of everything \u2014 the stuff to watch, read, look at, play with, buy, eat, invest in, comment on, listen to, or have feelings about \u2014 combine it with a deep understanding of who you are and what you like, and feed back to you an endless supply of all your favorite stuff. <\/p>\n

When it works, it can feel magical, like the TikTok algorithm that seems to know you better than you know yourself. But that\u2019s pretty rare. More often, you\u2019re chased around the internet by Amazon ads for products you already bought, or you\u2019re stuck flipping through hundreds of 3.5-star Yelp listings or a hundred same-sounding true-crime podcasts on Spotify just to find something you like. Or you just end up watching The Office<\/em>. Again.<\/p>\n

Good recommendations seem like a simple enough problem, right? The companies and platforms working on these personalization machines say it\u2019s a harder problem than it seems. Mostly because humans, you see, are tricky to figure out. But they also say there\u2019s a way to do better. And a way you can help.<\/p>\n