What No One Tells You About Personalization

Polonski's essay argues the uncomfortable point behind "personalisation" as a product feature: most implementations reduce user agency rather than extend it, and many produce filter bubbles and perceived surveillance without delivering obvious value. The piece is a useful counterweight to the ambient enthusiasm about personalisation that dominates product conversations at scale. For product direction the essay is a diagnostic prompt — before any personalisation feature, ask whether the user's experience of the product becomes richer or narrower, more transparent or more opaque. Short, concrete. Pair with Chayka for the consumer-side account of the same dynamics.