71–80 of 109 posts
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All that machine learning and they still think I would like to re-buy every product I've ever purchased.
Google has the same problem. I was searching for information about Apache Chainsaw the other day, and at one point forgot to put the word "apache" in as a search term. Ended up with adverts for actual chainsaws for like a week.
One of the hardest to use online learning platforms ever. I thought it was going to be a structured course from beginner to expert. Of course Amazon doesn't make it that easy. And the Free Digital Training 'enroll now' button does absolutely nothing. You'll spend most of your time choosing which of the 90 Machine Learning courses to do.
All that machine learning and they still send me reviews for products I haven’t received.
All that machine learning and they still think I would like to re-buy every product I've ever purchased.
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Amazon also doesn't know if this is a single use or consumable item. Some things have significant marginal utility beyond 1, and others can be consumed and need to be reordered. (Charging cables, Amazon echo for multiple rooms, paper goods, etc.)
How often do I buy a HP Color LaserJet printer, versus toner cartridges for it? Or ink for another printer of which it has no evidence that I own)? Yet I bought a color laser printer and my first two pages of recommendations are for other variations on the same ("Hey, you bought the wired MFP! Perhaps you want the wireless too! And I know it's a HP printer, but maybe I can suggest some Brother toner for you!").
Still though, there could be a method to the madness. You bought a printer - are you setting up a home office? Perhaps you want a second printer for upstairs?
Also, you just bought an HP brand printer. Were you replacing a printer that just ran out of ink? Maybe THAT printer was a Brother printer. Perhaps this Brother ink cartridge can extend the life of the hypothetical printer you may be replacing...
My point is that I can contrive cases where the recommendations might make sense - not to you, specifically, but to a large enough cross-section of consumers.
I loved AMZN's cloud certifications. Not a Data Scientist / ML Developer, nor am I trying to be, but I love sitting for these exams as I believe the amount of study gives you enough credibility to have thoughtful conversations with specialists. Looking forward to reading sentiment to see if the curriculum is industry relevant and worthwhile!
We can agree to disagree on that. The certs are useful if your business requires them for whatever reason but my standard take is any cert that doesn’t require hands on learning, such as RHCSA/RHCE/CKA/CCIE, tend to be a pointless exercise in reading comprehension. I say this as someone with several AWS certs.
I loved AMZN's cloud certifications. Not a Data Scientist / ML Developer, nor am I trying to be, but I love sitting for these exams as I believe the amount of study gives you enough credibility to have thoughtful conversations with specialists. Looking forward to reading sentiment to see if the curriculum is industry relevant and worthwhile!
The "credibility" point is important. As I say in all data MOOC-related HN threads, these types of courses will not make you an expert, but they're very good at giving a background on the terminology so it's less arcane.
I like the idea of MOOCs but there is a very serious quality issue with them at the moment, even the MOOCs from big name universities are a joke.
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It's worth pointing out that this recommendation behavior is only unintelligent if it has a downside, i.e. reduces Amazon's profits. Companies (and their AIs) only care about your business transactions, not whether you're annoyed. I'm sure Amazon engineering is well aware of the jokes about their recommendation engines. But their recommendation engines are not calibrated to reduce jokes, they are calibrated to increa…
I don't buy it, wrt recommending something already purchased. If the one thing you know about someone is a specific book (or other purchase people tend to only make one of) they bought, it's a decent assumption that they are more likely to buy literally anything else from you.
I think maybe the real mistake is that someone who is buying a bunch of copies doesn't really need the item to be recommended to them. The recommendations are more helpful for things that you can't find in the history.
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The "credibility" point is important. As I say in all data MOOC-related HN threads, these types of courses will not make you an expert, but they're very good at giving a background on the terminology so it's less arcane.
Most MOOCs from what I've seen are so basic to even take seriously. For example if you are learning some course called physics 101 which claims to be equivalent to college level. The real physics 101 in the classroom will be comprehensive in the sense that you learn all the material over 16 weeks by studying 15 or so textbook chapters - the whole subject in detail. The MOOC on the other hand will only cover the first…
I guess these students ruined MOOCs for everyone else. Schools now know that when they put out an advanced course, not only do they reap little reward, but also alienate lots of people who think their intelligence is insulted.
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Amazon also doesn't know if this is a single use or consumable item. Some things have significant marginal utility beyond 1, and others can be consumed and need to be reordered. (Charging cables, Amazon echo for multiple rooms, paper goods, etc.)
How often do I buy a HP Color LaserJet printer, versus toner cartridges for it? Or ink for another printer of which it has no evidence that I own)? Yet I bought a color laser printer and my first two pages of recommendations are for other variations on the same ("Hey, you bought the wired MFP! Perhaps you want the wireless too! And I know it's a HP printer, but maybe I can suggest some Brother toner for you!").