My boss told me that in one of our projects, we were looking for
diamonds in a heap of coal. During the past several weeks, I tried to
build a system, based on users' likes, which recommends these
diamonds or pieces of coal. The real problem is, as I see it now,
that when you allow users to generate content and then to choose
themselves what is worthwhile and what is not, the result may shock
you. People are strange. Masses are starkly different from a narrow
circle of intellectuals who try to analyse their behaviour. So, my
recommender now helps to find memes in a pile of shit, no diamonds
included.
