https://getwhatnext.app/blog/ Notes on building WhatNext, a private, on-device movie recommender. en Fri, 11 Sep 2026 17:00:00 -0700 https://getwhatnext.app/blog/why-averaging-your-favorite-movies-ruins-your-recommendations/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/why-averaging-your-favorite-movies-ruins-your-recommendations/ Fri, 11 Sep 2026 17:00:00 -0700 Why blending contrasting favorite movies into a single average breaks movie recommendations, and how WhatNext lets distinct viewing moods coexist. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-the-odyssey/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-the-odyssey/ Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:00:00 -0700 A personal review of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey (2026), paired with four grand mythic and adventure epic recommendations from WhatNext. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-spider-man-brand-new-day/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-spider-man-brand-new-day/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:00:00 -0700 A personal review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), paired with four high-stakes action recommendations from WhatNext's recommendation engine. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-avatar-aang-the-last-airbender/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-avatar-aang-the-last-airbender/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:00:00 -0700 A personal review of Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender (2026), paired with four animated martial arts and fantasy recommendations from WhatNext. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/movies-like-nightcrawler/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/movies-like-nightcrawler/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 Four gritty neo-noir thrillers like Nightcrawler, selected by WhatNext's engine: Dirty Pretty Things, The Grifters, To Live and Die in L.A., and Following. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-coyote-vs-acme/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-coyote-vs-acme/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 A personal review of Coyote vs Acme (2026), paired with four animated and courtroom comedy recommendations from WhatNext's recommendation engine. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/body-horror-movies-like-the-substance/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/body-horror-movies-like-the-substance/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 Four body horror movies like The Substance, picked by WhatNext's recommendation engine: Re-Animator, Birth/rebirth, The Stanford Prison Experiment, and The Brood. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/movies-like-the-truman-show/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/movies-like-the-truman-show/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 Four movies like The Truman Show, selected by WhatNext's recommendation engine for artificial worlds, staged reality, and identity: S1m0ne, Paper Moon, American Fiction, and Lars and the Real Girl. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/score-first-theme-second/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/score-first-theme-second/ Sun, 23 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 The curation mistake I caught the same day I made it: dropping the highest-scoring pick in one of WhatNext's TikTok recommendation posts to protect a theme, and the new rule that fixes it. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/how-your-taste-map-is-built/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/how-your-taste-map-is-built/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 WhatNext's Profile radar chart draws its axes from your own top genres, not a fixed list, and its named taste archetype is a best-fit label chosen from 14 weighted rules against your top three genres and recurring mood tags. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-the-end-of-oak-street/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/review-the-end-of-oak-street/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 A personal review of the 2026 family-survival thriller The End of Oak Street, plus four similar survival-movie recommendations from WhatNext's recommendation engine. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/why-i-held-back-an-approved-app-store-build/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/why-i-held-back-an-approved-app-store-build/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 Why I voluntarily pulled an Apple-approved App Store build to rewrite WhatNext's recommendation math from scratch with Bayesian shrinkage priors. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/movies-like-get-out/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/movies-like-get-out/ Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 Four psychological and social horror movies like Get Out, selected by WhatNext's recommendation engine for subverted safety and paranoia: Us, The Invitation, Speak No Evil, and Presence. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/why-your-taste-profile-doesnt-need-to-leave-your-phone/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/why-your-taste-profile-doesnt-need-to-leave-your-phone/ Mon, 17 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 How WhatNext calculates every movie recommendation entirely on your phone, with no server and no data collection, and the small engineering trick that keeps it instant. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/movies-like-interstellar/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/movies-like-interstellar/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 Four movies like Interstellar, picked by WhatNext's recommendation engine for the same scale, awe, and emotional core: Arrival, Gravity, Ad Astra, and Contact. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/the-story-so-far/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/the-story-so-far/ Sat, 15 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 How WhatNext actually got built: the app that came before it, the Apple review it walked away from on purpose, the one it got rejected from, and 727 commits in between. https://getwhatnext.app/blog/whatnext-is-live-on-ios/ https://getwhatnext.app/blog/whatnext-is-live-on-ios/ Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:00:00 -0700 WhatNext, a private movie recommendation app that learns your taste entirely on your device, launched on the App Store on August 14, 2026.