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by amelius 2793 days ago
> Without analytics, I wouldn't be able to sell with efficiency, and therefore, I wouldn't have a business.

I guess your summary is about right.

> we live in a capitalist world, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

We were living in a capitalist world two decades ago, and we didn't have a significant amount of tracking back then. If you are concerned about your competition using tracking, then just try to make a better product.
1 comments
citrablue 2793 days ago
If you are concerned with making a better product, you are going to need quite a bit of tracking and instrumentation to understand how to make a better product.
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guntars 2793 days ago
Using analytics to understand what users are thinking is like using tea leaves to divine the future. Just ask them.
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citrablue 2791 days ago
Users will give you the preferences that they think are important. Or are important at the point of that interview.

Analytics can give you a decent glimpse of revealed preferences, which may or may not be what you're after.

Whether or not this is a good thing, depends on a lot of subjectivity, sure. But suppose you run a porn site - if you asked most users what they wanted in porn (before they had seen any), they would probably say one thing. If you examine what kinds of videos people look at, you'll see another. (This theme, with actual data from pornhub, is explored at length in the book "Everybody Lies" by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.)

Both routes (asking and instrumenting) have their uses.

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guntars 2786 days ago
Glad you brought up porn because I believe that if you optimized any site's features just based on engagement analytics, you'd end up with a porn site with elements of gambling!

I'm kidding of course, but the idea is that analytics tell you a part off the user story, but doesn't answer the deeper "why" questions. It certainly has a place in tech, but it's less than what it's currently afforded.

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thrower123 2786 days ago
Bender was on to something. "X but with blackjack and hookers" is the next untapped market for disruptive startups. We've worn out "X, but on the internet" and "X, but blockchain".
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