Philosophy of Recommendations

Introduction

We all love getting good recommendations. I am sure you have read some amazing books, seen awesome movies, or really enjoyed an artist you would have never found if it weren’t for a friend or colleague suggesting you check it out.

Recommendations are a very important part of knowledge and experience sharing. But I would argue that we suffer from recommendation overload. There is so much good content out there and people are always happy to recommend that we are often overwhelmed, and thus desensitized, by recommendations. 

It is for that reason I think we all need to start thinking smarter about giving and receiving recommendations. I would like to lay out my philosophy and approach to good recommendations and I hope this will help you when swapping recommendations in the future.

Understanding Recommendations

We all make recommendations, but rarely think about what the practice of recommendation does on a more macro level. As we each go through life, we encounter a range of different experiences, some good, some bad, and some even life defining. Recommendations can be a way for us to share what we have found to be the most valuable experiences we have had with others. 

This is a great practice for a society to promote because it means that the more valuable knowledge, information, and experiences people have had can be widely distributed, saving people from having to find those on their own. If I love SciFi, and after reading 100 books, know the handful of best works I would recommend, this saves others from having to grind through all the average or bad ones to find the good ones. We are basically providing a competitive environment for different experiences, and the best experiences rise to the top to be distributed.

This is an extremely effective way to share the best experiences. If a book contains powerful knowledge around self improvement, and more and more people share it, it is basically empowering more and more people with that knowledge. Just like when a new tool is invented, it gets widely adopted because it empowers us to work more effectively, we should want to spread the best experiences and knowledge so others may benefit from those as well.

Principles of Recommendations

There are a few things I think are important to highlight before I explain my approach to recommendations.

There is a Massive Amount of Content in the World

There is way too much of everything for any one person to even experience a faction of what is out there. So instead of reading through all the books or watching all the movies out there, we rely on others to identify what is good and worth the time to read. We crowdsource the problem of combing through all the content to find the good stuff

People’s Time is Valuable

Everyone should value their time and want to spend it in the best way possible. This means, you should read the best books, watch the best movies, eat the best food, and listen to the best music. This means recommendations are a great way to make sure we are all identifying and sharing the best ways to use our time.

People Have Different Interests

Recommendations should not just be optimized for the quality of the content, but the relevance to the person you are giving the recommendation. We all have different tastes and interests and it is important to tailor your recommendation to what that person might most benefit from.

We Should Optimize Our Recommendations

One of the biggest problems with recommendations is that we are all often too quick to make a recommendation. We usually just recommend something we have seen or read recently that we really enjoyed, not thinking to optimize for the truly exceptional content and to tailor the recommendation to the person’s interests. And because of this, we have all experienced bad recommendations. Which in turn, makes us less likely to take future recommendations seriously. If we want to get the most out of this powerful tool for experience sharing, we should be thoughtful about the things we recommend.

How to Make a Recommendation

So we have established all the fundamentals and now understand how important good recommendations are. Now let’s talk about approach. Here is how I make recommendations.

Learn About The Person

Considering it is optimal to make a recommendation that someone will be interested in and enjoy, it is important you know about the person you are making the recommendation to. What kind of stuff do they enjoy? What are they interested in learning more about? What kind of content do they normally like to consume? If you can figure out where someone is most interested or curious and make a recommendation that fits with those interests, they are much more likely to listen to your recommendation and enjoy it.

Pitch Ideas and Explain

Instead of just telling someone they should try your recommendation, think of it more like making a pitch. “You might be interested in this book because reasons. It is about blah blah blah.” is a great way to float the recommendation and see if it resonates with someone. If they don’t seem interested, then you can always try some other options that might be better.

Be Reciprocal

I always tell people that I know they are taking a risk and spending their valuable time if they take me up on a recommendation and so I am also willing to do the same. I also encourage them to think really critically about what they would recommend to me. I always jokingly say that I will judge them very harshly for their recommendation and they should do the same! It means that they will be extra thoughtful to make sure they recommend something truly awesome and understand that I also don’t make my recommendations lightly.

Make it Easy

It is very easy to give a recommendation, but hard to actually follow up on one. Very few people actually buy the book, find the movie, or go to that restaurant. But if you make it easier, there is a better chance they will.

I keep a library of the books I love to recommend at my desk at work and will hand people a physical copy of the book on the spot. I buy these books off ebay for a couple bucks so I don’t care too much if I get them back. But I would say this greatly increases the chance someone will read it. 

I also will send links to movies, or youtube videos so people don’t have to search for themselves. If you want to recommend good food, suggest going there together, or order delivery to share. 

Bottom line, most people immediately forget a recommendation, but if you put in a little work to make it easy for them, there is a much better chance they will experience it.

Conclusion

Recommendations are an effective practice for sharing powerful experience and we should all do our best to make thoughtful recommendations that are both high quality and tailored to the recommendee. If we all make good recommendations, we help each other find those high quality experiences and spend our valuable time in the best way! I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on this and start looking at giving and receiving recommendations a little differently.