[alberth]

What’s odd is that the person responding in Quora who’s speaking as if he has authority on this matter started at Netflix in 2011, 2 years after the contest ended.

The contest started in 2006 and was awarded in 2009.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize

[squarecog]

Why is this odd?

If he started two years later and there was not a trace of the Prize work at the company, that would be an indicator that the competition was not important. If he started and could still see knock-on effects from the competition, that's an indicator that it was important.

Plus, he didn't just start at Netflix. He "took over the small team that was working and maintaining the rating prediction algorithm that included the first year Progress Prize solution."

Yeah, that sounds like he has some authority on the matter.

[alberth]

Could it not be something more simple like, Netflix didn’t originally have profiles. So my child watching kid shows and me watching action shows were all feeding into the same recommendation system resulting in subpar results. That and they originally had a 5 star rating system which they then dropped.

Its very possible Netflix realized they needed to course correct the UX and as a result the winners algorithm was solving for a problem that no longer applied because it was using assumptions (rating system & no existence of different profiles) that were no longer relevant.

[nextaccountic]

He worked 10 years there, and was former research director, so.. maybe he knows a bit or two about this prize?

He did work on productionize the 2007 winner, after all.

[alberth]

His LinkedIn profile says otherwise. 2011-2017 was his time at Netflix.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/xamatriain

[tomnipotent]

The 2007 winner was still in production in 2011. I'm not sure that qualifies as "productionizing" as that word hints of 1st pass work, but he certainly has production experience with it.

[dimitrios1]

Everyone knows you can't lie on your LinkedIn profile, too.

[alberth]

Why would the person lie about working at another company (Telefonica) from 2007-2011.

[dimitrios1]

It was a joke.

[mmahemoff]

"Research/Engineering Director at Netflix (2011-2014)" would probably know a thing or two about how useful the contest was. (He also might have worked there before that time in a different role.)

[godelski]

Not far in he writes

> Ten years ago, when I was leading Algorithms at Netflix

So... I think he does know a thing or two about specifically this issue.

[tyingq]

He was the head of the area (Research/Engineering) that managed the recommendation engine. Part of that would be understanding the history.

[Ozzie_osman]

He's also a reputable source on Machine Learning in general and pretty well known in the community (I worked under him).

[trutannus]

Quora's culture is odd in general. Writing "authoritative" (even they're just LARPing as an expert) is basically why people go there in the first place. It's not uncommon to read something egregiously inaccurate written as indisputable fact. Good examples can be found in anything to do with history.

On a funny note, Jordan Peterson used to be a well known Quora answer writer prior to his current career as an internet celebrity. Source: https://www.quora.com/profile/Jordan-B-Peterson

[mikeyouse]

Ha - nice find. All sorts of the typical sad self-promotion you find on Quora.

[getlawgdon]

Jordan Peterson is a total fraud.