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Showing posts from August, 2025

The Group Theory of Data: Why Netflix's Recommendations Work Like Mathematical Magic

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The Group Theory of Data: Why Netflix's Recommendations Work Like Mathematical Magic You Know That Moment When Netflix Reads Your Mind? It's Friday night, you're scrolling through Netflix, and suddenly there it is—a show you've never heard of that turns out to be exactly what you needed. How did Netflix know you'd love a Korean zombie series when you've been watching British baking competitions? Or that you'd get obsessed with a documentary about chess players when your viewing history is mostly rom-coms? This isn't luck or coincidence. Netflix has cracked something that most companies struggle with: they've learned to think about data the way mathematicians think about complex problems. They don't just collect information—they find the hidden patterns and elegant structures that reveal what you actually want, not just what you think you want. The secret behind Netflix's seemingly magical recommendations isn't just big data or machine lea...

Why Companies Like Netflix and Airbnb Use Amazon Redshift Data Marts (And You Should Too)

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Why Companies Like Netflix and Airbnb Use Amazon Redshift Data Marts (And You Should Too) Your Data Is Trapped, And It's Costing You Money Picture this: You're the head of marketing at a growing e-commerce company. Black Friday is approaching, and you need to know which product categories performed best last year, which customer segments to target, and how much inventory to prepare. But getting these answers requires emailing three different departments, waiting for IT to run reports, and then trying to piece together data from various spreadsheets that somehow never quite match up. Sound familiar? This scenario plays out thousands of times daily in companies worldwide. Your data exists—it's sitting in customer databases, sales systems, and marketing platforms—but accessing it quickly and reliably feels impossible. Meanwhile, companies like Netflix can instantly tell you which shows are trending in specific regions, and Airbnb knows exactly which neighborhoods are seeing bo...