10. Making Recommendations

“Who are those guys?”

—PAUL NEWMAN AS BUTCH CASSIDY IN Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Being a frequent customer of Amazon.com, I receive many suggestions for book purchases. In May 2013, before the release of the initial edition of my first Modeling Techniques book, Amazon sent me an e-mail list of ten recommended books, and the book I was writing at the time was at the top of the list. My publisher, being a good publisher, made the book available for pre-order, and Amazon was asking if I wanted to order it.

Who are those guys who seem to know so much about me? Amazon for books, Netflix movies, Pandora music, among others—they seem to know a lot about what I like without my telling them very much.

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