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Comment by adwf | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, I have a long purchasing history of sci-fi novels. But then I buy a book about UX and another about value investing, suddenly my recommendations are all replaced by Warren Buffet and web design books...

Sci-fi novels are an area where I need a large amount of discoverability to find new authors - recommendations are very useful. Not so much when I break my trend and buy a stock market textbook.

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From personal experience I suggest you never buy a children's book on your own account.

There doesn't seem to be a way to tell Amazon "Hey this purchase was a one-off, don't use it for recommendations".

Sure there is, in the top left there is a link for "<your name>'s Amazon", click that, then in the toolbar in the middle click "Improve your recommendations". You'll get a list of all your purchases with a checkbox by each one to disregard it.

Or when you buy some newborn-baby clothes or equipment as a gift for a relative and all you see on Amazon thereafter is childcare products.

Did you find a good book on UX? I'd be interested in the title!

Sure, it was Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. Quite good, although just a basic short intro book on web usability. I'm generally hopeless at design, so it's given me quite a few ideas. Namely remove 80% of the wall of text on my site!

I've also picked up The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman. Haven't got around to reading it yet as it's not about the web, more just everyday design and usability, but it came highly recommended.

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