| This is a fantastic point, and you've hit on something fundamental that's been lost in the shift to on-demand: the joy of discovery through serendipity and low commitment. You're describing the exploration/exploitation trade-off in a very concrete way. Algorithmic recommendations are pure exploitation (based on your known likes). Endless scrolling is a frustrating middle ground. But "channel surfing" or "flipping" was a form of low-stakes exploration. You weren't making a choice to invest 90 minutes; you were dipping in for 30 seconds. If it didn't grab you, there was zero cost to leaving, which is psychologically liberating and led to finding unexpected gems. Netflix's "Play Something" button and "Shuffle Play" for shows like The Office are direct, if clumsy, acknowledgments of this need. But you're right, why not a live "80s Action" channel or an "A24 Indie" channel? The technical barrier is near-zero. Our take at lumigo.tv is that the modern equivalent shouldn't be tied to a linear broadcast schedule. The core experience to replicate is the low-friction, zero-commitment sampling. One experiment we're considering is a "Mood Stream": you pick a vibe ("Cult Classic," "Mind-Bending Sci-Fi," "90s Comfort"), and it starts a never-ending, autoplaying stream of trailers or key 2-minute scenes from films in that category. You lean back and "flip" with a pause button. If a clip hooks you, you click to see the full title and where to stream it. It’s on-demand channel surfing. The UI challenge is huge—how do you make it feel effortless, not just another menu? But your comment validates that solving this might be more valuable than another slightly-better recommendation algorithm. Thanks for this; it’s a much clearer design goal than “better search.” |