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Netflix (and probably Amazon too -- I have Prime but the UI for the video service is so bad I normally don't bother with it) is falling into the cable model of hundreds of channels but nothing to watch. More often than not I will spend 15-20 minutes browsing Netflix to find something interesting that I haven't already watched, and end up just switching it off because there's not much there.

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It's the same as opening the fridge, finding nothing you want, and going back a bit later with lower standards.

It's not that there is nothing there, your standards just need adjusted before you can appreciate what is there.

I guess the same can be applied to cable, but you have to really lower those standards to appreciate dozens of home shopping networks, reality TV and infomercials.

Too true.

They used to run competitions to improve their recommendation engine, because it was a big cost for a customer to get shipped a lemon.

They stopped that, I think they're running a different game now, where they just juice the expected rating to convince people to stream stuff that's really just ok.

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