Page 40 of Glitched Play

"Explain." I pull up a chair.

She rotates one monitor toward me. "The problem isn't content."

"Agreed."

"It isn't user behavior either."

"Agreed."

She points toward a graph. "The streaming recommendation engine was updated seven weeks ago."

I nod. "It was."

"The algorithm became too accurate." Maci grins.

"I’m listening." Finally, someone that sees the big picture.

"When users open the platform, they immediately find exactly what they came for."

I wait.

"They watch it."

Still waiting.

"Then they leave."

My pulse kicks once.

Because that's interesting—a pattern.

She continues.

"Your previous recommendation system wasn't as efficient. Users spent more time browsing. They discovered content accidentally. They clicked unrelated streams."

She points toward another graph.

"Now they get exactly what they want within seconds."

The realization lands immediately. "They stop exploring."

"Exactly.”

I lean back, amazed. And believe me I don’t use that word lightly. Am I more amazed that I didn’t think about the algorithm update? Or that she did in less than three hours?

The recommendation engine solved the problem for users to find exactly what they want so they wouldn’t change click the menu button and go to another streaming app, but our engagement fell.

The platform became too efficient.

I study her as Maci reaches for another pretzel.

"I know I wasn't hired for systems architecture."

"No."

"But systems are systems." The pretzel disappears. "If people are involved, patterns exist."

Something about that sentence feels familiar.