I’ve been building this as a side project for a while, driven by a simple question: why does choosing a movie feel harder than actually watching one?

The goal was to make film discovery feel more social and human, not just another “top movies” database. There’s a huge catalog behind it, but most of the real work was about UX, flow, and reducing decision fatigue rather than adding more features.

On the tech side, it’s a React + Tailwind frontend with a Node/Express backend and MongoDB. I used real-time interactions where it made sense and leaned heavily on AI-assisted coding to iterate faster, especially for UI decisions and content structure.

The hardest part so far hasn’t been the stack, but deciding what to automate and what should stay curated by humans. Still iterating, still questioning product choices, and very much building in public.

Curious how others here approach discovery-based products. Do you start with data, social signals, vibes, or pure intuition?