260821: Search, Matching, Incorporation
Spotify has solved the matching problem. I have spent 15 years daily exploring music: tens of thousands of hours and artists, from the past hundred years of recorded music. I minored in music in undergrad. All my friends were in bands, or worked as music critics. Expansive is something I have worked very hard to develop.
Spotify's algorithms are good enough that I consistently return to my weekly recommendations. I usually add 15-20% of the recommendations to my library. This is about as good as if a close friend was making playlists for me. There is no more efficient means for me to discover music, these days, than Spotify's algorithm.
If the matching (i.e. search) problem gets solved, I think our world changes dramatically. Right now, a lot of the world's economy operates around solving the matching problem. If you want a skilled consultant, real estate agent, or lawyer, you go to a firm which bundles and aggregates reputation and trust. If you want to meet people, you join clubs and organizations, and then hone in on the 1-2 people you really vibe with.
If these bundling organizations aren't needed, our social and economic fabric will be transformed.
Many of the difficult problems of modernity are matching problems. Dating is a matching problem, hence Tinder, and if a dating platform performed as well as Spotify's Discovery Weekly playlist, there wouldn't be a modern dating crisis.