Yield to the Zen of Netflix
I've realized an irony with our Netflix usage: When we get a DVD that we really want to see, it usually gets watched and sent back on the same day it arrives. But, when we get a DVD that maybe only I want to see, or maybe neither of us ends up in a mood to see, we end up keeping it for a few days—sometimes for a whole week. We've yet to "declare defeat" on many choices and just send them back unwatched.
This is weird, when I think about it: It actually costs more money to hang onto the DVD—in a rentals-per-month sense—versus sending it right back and possibly requesting it again in the future when we're in a mood to see it. Of course, lots of back and forth with unwatched videos costs postage, but that's not our problem.
This seems like a sort of Zen of Netflix thing I should wrap my head around. And, if Netflix really wanted to save some money and exploit this bug of mine, they should recommend things that I kinda-but-don't-really want to see—so that I hang onto them longer and don't squeeze so much value out of my flat monthly rate.
Archived Comments
That would be easy. They just need to keep track of how long people keep movies for, and recommend movies that are similar to the ones they kept for longer.
I wouldn't be surprised if that were standard procedure already.
Heh. Yeah, we do that do. At the moment it's a scheduling problem: when will the girls be awake to watch The Muppet Show the same time that I'm home to watch it with them.