Audience data lags the numbing it causes, making it useless for novelty

Evidence

Relying too heavily on data to shape creative decisions misunderstands the nature of culture. Whether it’s entertainment or art, humans seek culture for stimulation, not just familiarity. Data can reveal what people enjoy now, but by the time trends are replicated, audiences have already numbed to the same stimuli. The role of true creative inventors is not to follow tastes but to invent what will excite and challenge people next. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 871

Categorization

• DEFINE: This states the mechanism behind ‘omnivore monoculture’: familiarity-seeking data feedback flattens culture precisely because replication lags a numbed audience.