[jfengel]

I know a lot of people buy gifts that way, but I try to avoid getting people gifts for their hobbies and interests. If it's their expertise and not yours, there's a very good chance that it's going to be something they either already have or chose not to have.

It's not impossible to find that "Oh, I always wanted one of these" gifts, but even when I get such a gift, it feels oddly disconnected if the giver doesn't know why it's important to me.

The best gifts are the ones that you get because they share something with you. "I picked this up because it reminded me of that trip we took", or "The net time we go golfing together, I know you'll like this putter because it worked so well for me."

There are still uses for such a list: even when you share things it helps to have something jog your memory and spark ideas. But I'd be worry about finding a fishing lure for a fishing-obsessed friend no matter how many fishing aficionadoes recommended it. I'll do that if I have no other ideas, but it would feel desperate.

So thanks for creating it, and good luck.

[cmonaghan]

Thank you for the thoughtful feedback. I agree that the best gifts emphasize connection with the individual and it's difficult to replicate that insight through an app. Perhaps using this as a tool to simply "jog the memory" is its most effective use case.

I was inspired by Spotify's "Discovered Weekly" algorithm which recommends songs based on other users with similar music tastes. It's uncanny how effective the Spotify algorithm is at suggesting new songs that I like. My hypothesis is that this can be harnessed and applied to gift recommendations, but right now it's only that, a hypothesis, and indeed all the gift recommendations are currently hardcoded.

Thanks for the feedback!