BAO TO
Writing by Bao To on design engineering, taste, and building products. The list below links each essay in full.
The deli owner, the market vendor, and the problem with being known.
A deli owner in New York and a market vendor in Hanoi both do something that looks like personalization: they remember your name, anticipate your order, ask about your life. A recommendation algorithm does the same thing, and does it better. I argue that the algorithm's superiority is exactly the problem.