[zmgsabst]

A small technical point:

Tastes are almost never normally distributed along a spectrum, but multi-modal. So the more dimensions you explore in, the more you end up with “islands of taste” on the surface of a hyper sphere and nothing like the normal distribution at all. This phenomenon is deeply tied to why “design by committee” (eg, in movies) always makes financial estimates happy but flops with audiences — there is almost no customer for average anything.

I agree with your conclusion.

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"Design by committee" is also how most hit movies are made. Hit songs too

[zmgsabst]

Do you have an example?

My experience with customer surveys indicates the opposite — that customers prefer you have an opinion.

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An example of a hit movie or song that was created by committee?

Inside Out 2 had the largest box office of any movie in 2024. Checkout the "research and writing" section in its wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Out_2#Research_and_writ... ... psychological consultants, a feedback loop with a group of teenagers, test screenings.

Or how about "Die with a smile" - currently number 1 in the global top 50 on Spotify. 5 songwriters

Or "APT." - currently number 2 in the global top 50 on Spotify. 11 songwriters

You don't have to look very hard

[zmgsabst]

Inside Out 2 has a single writer, who also worked on the first.

Consulting with SMEs, testing with audiences, etc isn’t “design by committee”.

Similarly, “Die With a Smile” seems to have been the work of two people with developed styles with support — again, not a committee:

> The collaboration was a result of Mars inviting Gaga to his studio where he had been working on new music. He presented the track in progress to her and the duo finished writing and recording the song the same day.

Apt seems to have started with a single person goofing around, then pitched as a collaboration and the expanded team entered at that point.