The recommendation system is the thing that shows you stuff without you needing to browse for 20 mins.
I get the sense that they're A/B testing the wrong metric: time spent in the app. I'll often spend more time looking than a couple episodes of a show.
They haven't recommended me lockwood and co on Netflix, we stumbled on it because it was popular (and we binged watched it one night when both were asleep).
So I do think it sucks. Recommendation seems to consider similarity, but not "quality" : they give equal treatment to their products, and the consequence seems to be that they show often garbage mixed in with good stuff...
I watch high quality shows only - anyway I don't watch much.
And I have the exact same impression, it doesn't suggest me quality shows.
Interestingly, Steam seems to do a much better job at recommending OR my ability to filter out good/bad videogames is much superior. The problem with a movie is that you can't see a part of the plot for some of them or it would spoil it, while for videogames you definitely want to look at the gameplay (at least for me) before buying.
Often I find stuff on Reddit or other forums or through my own research then look for it on Amazon or Netflix and often it is there, but was never recommended to me.
Not true, the opposite often happens when you don't really have a choice and are mentally exhausted. If you're expecting choice and don't get it, then of course you're not going to be satisfied. But the lack of any choice (other than just leaving) can make certain people in certain states more satisfied than anything else. Legacy broadcast radio worked on this principle for a long time, and still does for people who just keep their car radio on a single station and let the DJ or talk radio producer make all the decisions.
> what will be the optimal number of options?
That varies significantly, both between individuals in terms of the average tolerance, as well as within individuals in terms of their present psychological state.
This process for finding right movie takes effort and many aspects, while the streaming service only has my watching/browsing history and rating system which I don’t bother participating in.
I think it might get better if they become more intrusive, though.
It was much easier to choose a film to watch in the cinema (about 5 options) than to choose a film from the video store (500 options).