The Folly of the Perfect Prediction
Never conflate the terms better and perfect.
"Perfect is the enemy of good." –Voltaire
Why does Netflix spend so much money on trying to predict what its 50 million subscribers will watch? (The company famously offered a prize to anyone who could improve its recommendation engine.) Why has it devoted so many resources to collaborative filtering?
How Netflix generates recommendations is a bit of a black box, but the reason is fairly straight forward: Better predictions mean better business. Let me explain.
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