Comments on: Pandora Knows Me Better Than I Do http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/04/15/pandora-knows-me-better-than-i-do/ Musings of a Balding 27 Year Old Entrepreneur Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:03:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Adam McFarland http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/04/15/pandora-knows-me-better-than-i-do/comment-page-1/#comment-680 Adam McFarland Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:45:24 +0000 http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/04/15/pandora-knows-me-better-than-i-do/#comment-680 Anthony - didn't really make that connection because I kind of posted on a whim, but you are 100% correct. Focus groups are tough because most of the time people don't even know what they truly want. I have to believe an advanced algorithm like Pandora is waaaaay better at predicting what music people will like than pretty much any other method available. You see it happening already in baseball with sabermetrics - computers are better at analyzing data from large sample sizes and drawing conclusions (or aiding in drawing conclusions) than scouts ever have been or ever will be. It's caused a huge rift among people in the game, and it'll probably be the same in any industry when data driven models start making decisions that people used to make...and do a better job of it. Anyone interested in reading regularly about this stuff should check out http://www.firejoemorgan.com/ - possibly the best site on the web in my opinion. Anthony – didn’t really make that connection because I kind of posted on a whim, but you are 100% correct. Focus groups are tough because most of the time people don’t even know what they truly want. I have to believe an advanced algorithm like Pandora is waaaaay better at predicting what music people will like than pretty much any other method available.

You see it happening already in baseball with sabermetrics – computers are better at analyzing data from large sample sizes and drawing conclusions (or aiding in drawing conclusions) than scouts ever have been or ever will be. It’s caused a huge rift among people in the game, and it’ll probably be the same in any industry when data driven models start making decisions that people used to make…and do a better job of it. Anyone interested in reading regularly about this stuff should check out http://www.firejoemorgan.com/ – possibly the best site on the web in my opinion.

]]> By: Anthony http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/04/15/pandora-knows-me-better-than-i-do/comment-page-1/#comment-679 Anthony Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:28:28 +0000 http://www.adam-mcfarland.net/2008/04/15/pandora-knows-me-better-than-i-do/#comment-679 Hah, I love Pandora, been listening to it for a couple years now. It's great. Kind of makes you wonder what kinds of tools more advanced businesses have at their disposal (or will in the very near future) - I mean, if you can predict exactly what the songs a person will enjoy based on a few parameters, I'm sure you can also determine what price points will work best, what channels are most effective, how they will react to certain messages, etc. Forget focus groups - seems like computers are starting to know people better than they know themselves. Hah, I love Pandora, been listening to it for a couple years now. It’s great.

Kind of makes you wonder what kinds of tools more advanced businesses have at their disposal (or will in the very near future) – I mean, if you can predict exactly what the songs a person will enjoy based on a few parameters, I’m sure you can also determine what price points will work best, what channels are most effective, how they will react to certain messages, etc. Forget focus groups – seems like computers are starting to know people better than they know themselves.

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