Maya called her boss, panicked. "We're not connecting people," she said. "We're building a machine that punishes the first person to like something. The only safe like is the millionth like."
The term originated in the 1920s with a wealthy but insecure London collector named Reginald "Reggie" Poole. Reggie had a peculiar habit. Whenever a renowned scholar or a rival aristocrat praised a specific illuminated manuscript—say, the Tickhill Psalter —Reggie would immediately purchase a similar, often inferior, copy and loudly declare it his "lifetime treasure." He didn't seek the best; he sought the liked . He wanted what the king wanted. kingliker
His nickname, coined by the satirical magazine Punch in 1926, was cruel but precise: "The Kingliker—a man whose taste is not his own, but the echo of a throne." Maya called her boss, panicked