I surrendered my life to algorithms for a week 🤖

A Week with Algorithmically Generated Recommendations: A Personal Experiment

The day started with an unexpected recommendation from an algorithmic system. The taste dot io algorithm recommended the movie Before Sunset, which is part of the Before trilogy directed by Richard Linklater. I hadn't seen any of these movies, so I decided to jump right in with number two. It's quite charming, and I found myself wanting to watch the other ones as well. All in all, it was a pretty interesting selection, one that I might not have watched otherwise. The algorithm had done its job in suggesting something new and different.

But before diving into the world of movies, I wanted to test out an algorithmic system that I use to control my music library. My music algorithm is Apple Music, which already has a wealth of data on what I like and dislike. I've been using it for a little while now, mainly to check out new albums before I buy them outright. For the whole week, I only listened to music from Apple's algorithmically generated playlists. To be honest, I didn't really enjoy listening to this type of music. My favorite algorithmically generated playlists were pretty much the ones with the most songs that I already liked on them.

Moving on to other pursuits, my friend had generously agreed to join me for a Yelp experience, "The Escape Room." It was themed around Magic Kingdom and promised to be an exciting adventure. The challenge was simple: find a chest, pick the lock, get the wand, fix the mill, jump down the chimney, read a book, find the Jackalope, treat the giant, hit the gong, fight the bees, steal some wax, make a candle, place a music hanger picture, and finally, find the bug. All of this had to be done within an hour. I was excited to see how well the algorithm would do in guiding me through this experience.

As it turned out, I ended up spending a lot more money than usual during this week. The algorithms that I tested were designed to encourage me to buy more things, and I must admit, they did their job quite effectively. Between the food and activities, I spent around $259 more than I normally would have. This won't come as a huge surprise to many of you, but it's always interesting to see how algorithms impact our spending habits.

As for the other algorithms tested, Stitch Fix was definitely my favorite surrender algorithm. It seemed to understand what I liked and provided me with some great suggestions. Taste.io was also quite good, and I ended up discovering some new foods that I really enjoyed. On the other hand, Yelp's algorithm was a bit of a mixed bag. While it did provide some interesting experiences, it also left a lot to be desired.

One thing that I noticed about Yelp's algorithm is that some businesses are paying for advertising on the platform. A Yelp spokesperson confirmed this and explained that a restaurant's advertising status does not affect its placement by the algorithm. However, I did find out that the poke burrito place I visited earlier was actually one of them. Despite this, I ended up returning to that place multiple times since filming this video.

In conclusion, my experiment with algorithmically generated recommendations has given me a lot to think about. While some algorithms worked well and provided me with new experiences, others were less successful. The degree to which they work varies wildly depending on who is developing them and why. As we move forward in an increasingly digital world, it's essential that we understand how these algorithms impact our lives and make informed decisions about the role they play in guiding our daily choices.

As I reflect on this experiment, I'm left with a sense of wonder at the complexity of modern technology. From managing my music library to navigating the complexities of Yelp, algorithmic systems are increasingly playing greater and greater roles in our lives. While there's still much to learn, I hope that this experience has been informative and entertaining for my readers. If you have any ideas or suggestions for future experiments, please don't hesitate to share them in the comments below.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni'm going to surrender my free will to algorithms for a week in the name of science that means what i wear watch eat listen to and do will all be determined by algorithms what happens to a man when he lets lines of code determine who he is let's find out making decisions takes time and energy both of which seem to be in short supply for me these days thankfully there's a whole slew of algorithms out there aimed at helping hapless fools like me make decisions based on what they know about my interests and while it's true algorithms already control many aspects of our lives including what we see on social media what products are recommended to us and even whether or not this video will be a success hello youtube algorithm i wanted to see what would happen if i outsourced even more of my daily decisions to algorithms by surrendering control in five different categories clothes food activities music and movies for a whole week i'll leave timestamps down in the description if there's a specific category you're interested in checking out first up surrendering my wardrobe stitch fix is a service that gathers data about your style via a quiz and then feeds that data into its algorithm there is a human stylist involved and stitch fix says they're an integral part of the process they take the algorithm's recommendations and make the final call resulting in a box of clothing delivered to your door known as a fix i asked stitchfix if it was possible to just send me the algorithm's pics without the human stylist but it was a no-go looks like style still has a human element to it at least for now the stitch fix experience starts with filling out a style profile this includes entering your sizes i don't even know what an inseam is identifying styles you like and dislike not a v-neck guy my chest hair is for my future wife only thank you very much and your preferred fits i never even thought about shirt fits like this after a brief wait my fix was delivered all right oh there's only five items in a fix that's one for each day i asked for tops only in my fix since y'all are mostly seeing my top half in these videos anyway it seems relatively minimalist on the packing materials see it's just like a thin paper layer separating the different items all around pretty sweet uh pretty sweet little package after receiving my fix i put on a little fashion show for my fiance whose opinion on these clothes matters almost as much as mine maybe more than mine all right got a north face turquoise jacket turn around you love the color i love the color i mean yeah it's i just love like turquoise so you don't like the color it's not like i don't like the color because it's like if you like the color you should express yourself colors that you like item number two is this flag and anthem uh sweater little thin pretty thin sweater you look like a hacker in a movie this is not something i would buy for myself i wouldn't buy free either all right flannel on deck some uh lumberjack vibes picnic table vibes i like it cool number four this is the most dressy shirt i was just thinking that the merman shirt big fan all right there it is number five of five for my first algorithmic fix thank you very much now that i know what i'm wearing for this week what am i eating and on a deeper level what am i doing we ended up killing two birds with one stone thanks to the yelp algorithm since it makes recommendations for a huge variety of things i was able to surrender both my daily meals and my daily activities to it a good idea in theory but in practice it was a bit of a roller coaster all right so this is my first algorithmically determined meal it's a burrito oh wow it's very good i know you guys are probably thinking oh he set up this video so he can get free clothes and free food and watch movies at work you're not wrong that's part of it let's see what yelp has for me now i want to look for an activity the closest thing that i can find to like activities is active life right the very first thing that pops up is stairs which is exactly what you want after eating a gigantic burrito is stairs so thank you for that algorithm let's uh let's go check out some stairs when i arrived at the secret stairs i thought it was an appropriate time to listen to my algorithmically assembled getup mix courtesy of apple music more on that later i thought there were only a few stairs but i was wrong starting to feel that burrito all right now i gotta go back to my car which is parked illegally my first day of surrender went pretty well but the dawn of day two brought with it the specter of doubt and some surprising complications at first the yelp algorithm recommended this chicken place like chicken sandwich place i don't really eat chicken and there was literally no other proteins on the menu so i went into the yelp algorithm and i said hey you know i eat veggie stuff i eat fish i eat you know pescetarian basically i put in that info and reloaded the screen and the chicken place was instead of being the second one after the place i got yesterday it was now the first recommendation because the yelp algorithm skipped over my dietary inputs i decided to skip over its recommendation i did end up getting this tofu bowl this looks nice the fact that i put in that i i don't eat chicken if you're not even looking at that in your algorithm like what's the point what's really going on with these algorithms you know what i'm saying that's a sign i'm on to something for my day two activity yelp sent me to a mini park that was indeed quite mini all right so i just left that little park which was pretty cute there was just like a little art project and a little kids play area and that's pretty much it that's what the algorithm thought i wanted so thanks so day three the algorithm bestowed me with a sushi burrito pretty stoked about that look at that whoever thought to put hot cheetos in a sushi burrito i commend you day three was a real breakthrough i felt like for the first time all week i've been able to let go of control and just enjoy the ride along the path the algorithm had laid out for me i like this i was starting to get the hang of things all right today we got some korean food let's check it out some gorgeous kimchi fried rice right there look at that nice and spicy does anybody know if you're supposed to eat the uh eat the shell on these guys that's how the whales eat them right so yelp is recommending a pilates place but unfortunately all their classes are full um so we're gonna have to go with the next one which is devil's gate damn that sounds really cool devil's gate dam was definitely my favorite activity of the week it's got everything art people hello animals waterfront views and the occasional clue to a murder what's not to like cheers i'm definitely very lucky and grateful that this is a part of my job doing stupid weird like this i am looking forward to making my own decisions again though as delicious as this burrito is yelp's last recommendation for me was an escape room above a kfc since the escape room was the last algorithmically determined thing i did all week i'll come back to it in the conclusion section of this video when i escaped the room i escaped the algorithms so far i've surrendered my skin stomach and my brain now let's talk about how i surrendered my eyeballs there's so many different algorithms out there recommending content to watch i needed a service that crossed streaming platforms so i wasn't limited to a single content pool and taste io seemed up to the challenge as with yelp and stitch fix i had to spend a little bit of time training up the taste i o algorithm to give it a fighting chance at figuring out what sort of things i like so the first film that the taste i o algorithm recommended to me was la 92 which shows the sequence of events that culminated in the 1992 la uprising hard to watch but undoubtedly important to watch as well today's movie is still walking if you like intimate family dramas i would definitely recommend it i just finished my day three movie the road it's so joyless did our sense of humor die in the apocalypse too like if i survive an apocalypse i'm gonna be making some jokes whether or not there are people out to eat my flesh you know what i'm saying so yeah the road not my thing so today taste i o recommended john adams which is not a movie it's a limited series on hbo it was good for what it was i was feeling the things i feel like i was supposed to be feeling so it was effective in that way you know for my last day the taste dot io algorithm recommended the movie before sunset which is part of the before trilogy directed by richard linklater i haven't seen any of these movies so i'm jumping right in with number two it's quite charming movie quite enjoyable makes me want to watch the other ones all in all pretty interesting selection things that i might not have watched otherwise probably wouldn't have watched otherwise but yeah next up for surrender my ear holes for music nerds like me giving up control of the music we listen to is not really something that we do but this today is for pseudoscience so let's get into it for my music algorithm i use apple music which already has plenty of data on what i like and dislike just because i've been using it for a little while mainly to check out new albums before i buy them outright for the whole week i only listen to music from apple's algorithmically generated playlists i gotta say i don't really like listening to music like this my favorite algorithmically generated playlists were pretty much the ones with the most songs i already liked on them now back to yelp's final curveball the escape room above a kfc my fiance generously agreed to join me so i didn't have to do it alone that would have been weird but the only time she was available to do it was late at night the escape room was magic kingdom themed here's a little taste all you have to do is find a chest pick the lock get the wand fix the mill jump down the chimney read a book find the jackalope treat the giant hit the gong fight the bees steal some wax make a candle place a music hanger picture find the bug stop time and save the magic kingdom all in under an hour after using up all the hints they would give us we successfully rejuvenated the tree of life and i was finally free of my algorithmic duties okay so just uh got back from the escape room there's a bit of a war going on in my stomach because of some algorithmically suggested leftovers that i had for dinner glad to be done glad to be home glad it's freaking over and i have my life back now so what did i learn from a week of outsourcing my decisions to algorithms well the first thing i noticed was that i ended up spending a lot more money this won't come as a huge surprise to many of you but the algorithms that i tested are basically designed to encourage me to buy more things between the food and the activities i spent about 259 dollars more than i normally would have this week not including the clothes if i kept only the clothes that i liked that would have been an additional 295 dollars approximately or if i'd bought all five tops with stitchfix's 25 by everything discount that would have been 318.75 that's almost 600 dollars for the week if cnet wasn't bankrolling all this i'd be sweating that overall my favorite algorithms to surrender to were definitely stitch fix and taste i o i'd say apple's algorithmically generated playlists can't compete with the ones that i make for myself and yelp's algorithm was pretty much all over the place i did find out for a fact that that chicken sandwich place as well as some of the other businesses i visited pay yelp for advertising because i've seen them show up in the sponsored section of yelp's search results a yelp spokesperson confirmed that a restaurant's advertising status does not affect its placement by the algorithm i will say in yelp's favor that i have returned to that poke burrito place multiple times since filming this video though that was fire i went into this experiment hoping to test how well these algorithms work and how well they know me and whether they're ready to take over some of life's most mundane decisions and i've concluded that the degree to which they work varies wildly depending on who is developing them and why and beyond the algorithms i tested this week there are many others that impact our lives in more significant and direct ways including investing policing and algorithmic management of work take for example the people who delivered my meals this week thank you very much man have a good day man you too thank you so much you too thank you very much thank you so much have a good day in a sense their work is managed by an algorithm it determines what tasks they are assigned in what order they are to complete them and in some cases how much they get paid at the end of the day i feel like this video has just scratched the surface of how algorithms are increasingly playing greater and greater roles in guiding our lives there's still more i feel like i have to learn and if you all help me make this video a success by smashing that like button maybe i'll get to do more experiments on myself if you've got any ideas please let me know down in the comments i'm your host jesse oral thanks so much for watchingi'm going to surrender my free will to algorithms for a week in the name of science that means what i wear watch eat listen to and do will all be determined by algorithms what happens to a man when he lets lines of code determine who he is let's find out making decisions takes time and energy both of which seem to be in short supply for me these days thankfully there's a whole slew of algorithms out there aimed at helping hapless fools like me make decisions based on what they know about my interests and while it's true algorithms already control many aspects of our lives including what we see on social media what products are recommended to us and even whether or not this video will be a success hello youtube algorithm i wanted to see what would happen if i outsourced even more of my daily decisions to algorithms by surrendering control in five different categories clothes food activities music and movies for a whole week i'll leave timestamps down in the description if there's a specific category you're interested in checking out first up surrendering my wardrobe stitch fix is a service that gathers data about your style via a quiz and then feeds that data into its algorithm there is a human stylist involved and stitch fix says they're an integral part of the process they take the algorithm's recommendations and make the final call resulting in a box of clothing delivered to your door known as a fix i asked stitchfix if it was possible to just send me the algorithm's pics without the human stylist but it was a no-go looks like style still has a human element to it at least for now the stitch fix experience starts with filling out a style profile this includes entering your sizes i don't even know what an inseam is identifying styles you like and dislike not a v-neck guy my chest hair is for my future wife only thank you very much and your preferred fits i never even thought about shirt fits like this after a brief wait my fix was delivered all right oh there's only five items in a fix that's one for each day i asked for tops only in my fix since y'all are mostly seeing my top half in these videos anyway it seems relatively minimalist on the packing materials see it's just like a thin paper layer separating the different items all around pretty sweet uh pretty sweet little package after receiving my fix i put on a little fashion show for my fiance whose opinion on these clothes matters almost as much as mine maybe more than mine all right got a north face turquoise jacket turn around you love the color i love the color i mean yeah it's i just love like turquoise so you don't like the color it's not like i don't like the color because it's like if you like the color you should express yourself colors that you like item number two is this flag and anthem uh sweater little thin pretty thin sweater you look like a hacker in a movie this is not something i would buy for myself i wouldn't buy free either all right flannel on deck some uh lumberjack vibes picnic table vibes i like it cool number four this is the most dressy shirt i was just thinking that the merman shirt big fan all right there it is number five of five for my first algorithmic fix thank you very much now that i know what i'm wearing for this week what am i eating and on a deeper level what am i doing we ended up killing two birds with one stone thanks to the yelp algorithm since it makes recommendations for a huge variety of things i was able to surrender both my daily meals and my daily activities to it a good idea in theory but in practice it was a bit of a roller coaster all right so this is my first algorithmically determined meal it's a burrito oh wow it's very good i know you guys are probably thinking oh he set up this video so he can get free clothes and free food and watch movies at work you're not wrong that's part of it let's see what yelp has for me now i want to look for an activity the closest thing that i can find to like activities is active life right the very first thing that pops up is stairs which is exactly what you want after eating a gigantic burrito is stairs so thank you for that algorithm let's uh let's go check out some stairs when i arrived at the secret stairs i thought it was an appropriate time to listen to my algorithmically assembled getup mix courtesy of apple music more on that later i thought there were only a few stairs but i was wrong starting to feel that burrito all right now i gotta go back to my car which is parked illegally my first day of surrender went pretty well but the dawn of day two brought with it the specter of doubt and some surprising complications at first the yelp algorithm recommended this chicken place like chicken sandwich place i don't really eat chicken and there was literally no other proteins on the menu so i went into the yelp algorithm and i said hey you know i eat veggie stuff i eat fish i eat you know pescetarian basically i put in that info and reloaded the screen and the chicken place was instead of being the second one after the place i got yesterday it was now the first recommendation because the yelp algorithm skipped over my dietary inputs i decided to skip over its recommendation i did end up getting this tofu bowl this looks nice the fact that i put in that i i don't eat chicken if you're not even looking at that in your algorithm like what's the point what's really going on with these algorithms you know what i'm saying that's a sign i'm on to something for my day two activity yelp sent me to a mini park that was indeed quite mini all right so i just left that little park which was pretty cute there was just like a little art project and a little kids play area and that's pretty much it that's what the algorithm thought i wanted so thanks so day three the algorithm bestowed me with a sushi burrito pretty stoked about that look at that whoever thought to put hot cheetos in a sushi burrito i commend you day three was a real breakthrough i felt like for the first time all week i've been able to let go of control and just enjoy the ride along the path the algorithm had laid out for me i like this i was starting to get the hang of things all right today we got some korean food let's check it out some gorgeous kimchi fried rice right there look at that nice and spicy does anybody know if you're supposed to eat the uh eat the shell on these guys that's how the whales eat them right so yelp is recommending a pilates place but unfortunately all their classes are full um so we're gonna have to go with the next one which is devil's gate damn that sounds really cool devil's gate dam was definitely my favorite activity of the week it's got everything art people hello animals waterfront views and the occasional clue to a murder what's not to like cheers i'm definitely very lucky and grateful that this is a part of my job doing stupid weird like this i am looking forward to making my own decisions again though as delicious as this burrito is yelp's last recommendation for me was an escape room above a kfc since the escape room was the last algorithmically determined thing i did all week i'll come back to it in the conclusion section of this video when i escaped the room i escaped the algorithms so far i've surrendered my skin stomach and my brain now let's talk about how i surrendered my eyeballs there's so many different algorithms out there recommending content to watch i needed a service that crossed streaming platforms so i wasn't limited to a single content pool and taste io seemed up to the challenge as with yelp and stitch fix i had to spend a little bit of time training up the taste i o algorithm to give it a fighting chance at figuring out what sort of things i like so the first film that the taste i o algorithm recommended to me was la 92 which shows the sequence of events that culminated in the 1992 la uprising hard to watch but undoubtedly important to watch as well today's movie is still walking if you like intimate family dramas i would definitely recommend it i just finished my day three movie the road it's so joyless did our sense of humor die in the apocalypse too like if i survive an apocalypse i'm gonna be making some jokes whether or not there are people out to eat my flesh you know what i'm saying so yeah the road not my thing so today taste i o recommended john adams which is not a movie it's a limited series on hbo it was good for what it was i was feeling the things i feel like i was supposed to be feeling so it was effective in that way you know for my last day the taste dot io algorithm recommended the movie before sunset which is part of the before trilogy directed by richard linklater i haven't seen any of these movies so i'm jumping right in with number two it's quite charming movie quite enjoyable makes me want to watch the other ones all in all pretty interesting selection things that i might not have watched otherwise probably wouldn't have watched otherwise but yeah next up for surrender my ear holes for music nerds like me giving up control of the music we listen to is not really something that we do but this today is for pseudoscience so let's get into it for my music algorithm i use apple music which already has plenty of data on what i like and dislike just because i've been using it for a little while mainly to check out new albums before i buy them outright for the whole week i only listen to music from apple's algorithmically generated playlists i gotta say i don't really like listening to music like this my favorite algorithmically generated playlists were pretty much the ones with the most songs i already liked on them now back to yelp's final curveball the escape room above a kfc my fiance generously agreed to join me so i didn't have to do it alone that would have been weird but the only time she was available to do it was late at night the escape room was magic kingdom themed here's a little taste all you have to do is find a chest pick the lock get the wand fix the mill jump down the chimney read a book find the jackalope treat the giant hit the gong fight the bees steal some wax make a candle place a music hanger picture find the bug stop time and save the magic kingdom all in under an hour after using up all the hints they would give us we successfully rejuvenated the tree of life and i was finally free of my algorithmic duties okay so just uh got back from the escape room there's a bit of a war going on in my stomach because of some algorithmically suggested leftovers that i had for dinner glad to be done glad to be home glad it's freaking over and i have my life back now so what did i learn from a week of outsourcing my decisions to algorithms well the first thing i noticed was that i ended up spending a lot more money this won't come as a huge surprise to many of you but the algorithms that i tested are basically designed to encourage me to buy more things between the food and the activities i spent about 259 dollars more than i normally would have this week not including the clothes if i kept only the clothes that i liked that would have been an additional 295 dollars approximately or if i'd bought all five tops with stitchfix's 25 by everything discount that would have been 318.75 that's almost 600 dollars for the week if cnet wasn't bankrolling all this i'd be sweating that overall my favorite algorithms to surrender to were definitely stitch fix and taste i o i'd say apple's algorithmically generated playlists can't compete with the ones that i make for myself and yelp's algorithm was pretty much all over the place i did find out for a fact that that chicken sandwich place as well as some of the other businesses i visited pay yelp for advertising because i've seen them show up in the sponsored section of yelp's search results a yelp spokesperson confirmed that a restaurant's advertising status does not affect its placement by the algorithm i will say in yelp's favor that i have returned to that poke burrito place multiple times since filming this video though that was fire i went into this experiment hoping to test how well these algorithms work and how well they know me and whether they're ready to take over some of life's most mundane decisions and i've concluded that the degree to which they work varies wildly depending on who is developing them and why and beyond the algorithms i tested this week there are many others that impact our lives in more significant and direct ways including investing policing and algorithmic management of work take for example the people who delivered my meals this week thank you very much man have a good day man you too thank you so much you too thank you very much thank you so much have a good day in a sense their work is managed by an algorithm it determines what tasks they are assigned in what order they are to complete them and in some cases how much they get paid at the end of the day i feel like this video has just scratched the surface of how algorithms are increasingly playing greater and greater roles in guiding our lives there's still more i feel like i have to learn and if you all help me make this video a success by smashing that like button maybe i'll get to do more experiments on myself if you've got any ideas please let me know down in the comments i'm your host jesse oral thanks so much for watching\n"