It’s All Just Random Crap

Darius Kazemi is a game developer, and he has written a program to make totally random purchases of music, movies, and books from Amazon, using a given budget. He was inspired by one of his favorite feelings — ordering something from Amazon, having it be on backorder, forgetting about it, and then getting “a gift from yourself” weeks or months later. He’s interested in whether a random, bot-chosen gift will feel any less meaningful or good than “the random crap” he buys anyway.

He’s got the bot up and running, and it has ordered him $37 worth of stuff. He’ll find out what, exactly, in 3 to 5 business days. SO LONG PARADOX OF CHOICE. SEE YA. (I think this is kind of brilliant.)

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