Weekly Filet #144: Medium Rare Filets Starring Data Scientists
How many movie genres can you name? 10, 15, maybe 30 if you're getting creative. Well, streaming service Netflix categorises its content into no less than 76'897 micro-genres, like «Emotional Independent Sports Movies» or «Mind-bending Cult Horror Movies from the 1980s». It has done so by having computers and humans meticulously tag and rate every movie by all sorts of categories. This data is then used to power recommendations or, like in the case of «House of Cards», determine the ingredients of a successful new series. The real takeaway from this entertaining read: It's the data, stupid!
→ How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood (The Atlantic)
As every year, The Economist's look ahead is worth reading.
→ The World in 2014 (The Economist)
Likewise, as every year, Charlie Brooker's look back is a must watch.
→ Charlie Brooker's 2013 Wipe (YouTube)
A beautiful short documentary about a gang of old men playing for bragging rights on the handball courts of Flamingo Park in Miami.
→ Fast Eddie and the Boys (Victory Journal)
This is great: Ph.D. theses summed up in one sentence. Some almost poetic truths there: «Warning: Amputation may cause limping.» or «There are no solutions to the very complicated equation I made up.»
→ LOL my thesis (Tumblr)
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