What AI and instant noodles have in common

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And no, I’m not delusional writing that title - and it was hand-typed by a human, not hallucinated by AI. A model isn’t going to take that kind of a risk. Let me explain the actual connection.

The company I work for sells stuff to supermarkets, food service and so on. Among the things we sell are instant noodles. Our instant noodles are very popular - without saying too much, we dominate the NZ market based on the data.

What that meant was that I got to listen to real people talk about noodles - how they cook them, what they like, what they don’t like - for work this week.

What I found fascinating was a few trends that I also see coming to play in the AI space as well:

Personalisation - people who are heavily involved in the category are way beyond the average consumer. They would wax lyrical about turning it into a meal base, using it as a hangover cure and even how you can fake a full hot pot using noodles as the base to get them (and the rest of the food) to go further. But the taste was *personal* - it wasn’t shared. Just like a system or knowledge base or ICM that is customised to your needs.
Taste is a thing - which flavour, whether the noodles are soupy or dry - people know what they like (or dislike) and they’ll tell you. Model, ICM, code as a sidebar, local vs git - I am sure that everyone here also has their own taste that works for their needs too.
Consistency - one of the key things people love about the product is you always know what you’re going to get. High consistency and with consistency comes comfort, familiarity, repeat consumption. You can take risks around it, because of the strong base. Sounds an awful lot like ICM done right to me.

And then we get into the other stuff - which brands noodle is thicker and more filling. Who has discontinued a flavour the market loved (thankfully, a competitor!). But ultimately - their favourites were their favourites that worked for them and they stuck with them.

Sounds a bit like some files and folders where the new model of the month doesn’t phase you and you can just continue on. Because you have a system that works.

So here’s my question to this community - are you personalising your ICM? And how does the consistency of the base let you experiment?

Honestly, I’d love to hear it. Because just like the basics done right - noodles, in this case - the same themes apply to any field. Including AI.

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What AI and instant noodles have in common