Ask HN: App for finding your cognitive siblings? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: App for finding your cognitive siblings?

#11

Post by Regardsyjc » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 2:11 AM UTC

arandr0x wrote: post #4

The idea is to have a conversation with someone who's read as much of the same things you have as possible? What do you learn from this?

I read a lot but there aren't many people I know who read the same things I do- so I am unable to have deeper conversations about the things I read. Everyone adds something, their own meaning and context so they can see something you're not able to.

Do you agree or disagree? What did you think about this point? It reminded me of this instance. Have you also read that instance, do you agree? Etc.

Re: Ask HN: App for finding your cognitive siblings?

#12

Post by rboyd » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 12:29 PM UTC

Connecting with similar people would be good.

Getting relevant link recommendations would be great.

Similar ideas: delicious, prismatic, StumbleUpon.

Biggest issues are probably chicken-and-egg problem and privacy concerns.

Re: Ask HN: App for finding your cognitive siblings?

#13

Post by natmaka » Sat, Nov 03, 2018, 1:49 PM UTC

In any case such a tool may warn the user against its potential echo chamber effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_chamber_%28media%29

Re: Ask HN: App for finding your cognitive siblings?

#14

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 12:55 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: App for finding your cognitive siblings?

#15

Post by omosubi » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 12:08 AM UTC

mjhirn wrote: post #6

arandr0x wrote: post #4

The idea is to have a conversation with someone who's read as much of the same things you have as possible? What do you learn from this?

Good question! Could see that a conversation with that person may go very stale very quickly, but may have some other benefits? - Great reading recommendations - Great proof-of-competence like a 'badge' or 'degree' when hiring

there's plenty to discuss whenever you've read something someone else has read. just think about book clubs that get together and talk about books that everyone has just read based on questions that they might have shared before hand. you can always share your insights into the book, your opinions on the content, connections to other things, etc. It's funny to me that people are saying that conversations around these things would get stale.

My tip would be to have a group of friends, potentially online in a group chat or in person, all read one or two _short_ pieces that you have selected so you can discuss them, and then have another person select pieces, etc. I highly doubt that you will find another person out in the ether that has read a lot of the same stuff as you have at the level you want or expect.

Re: Ask HN: App for finding your cognitive siblings?

#16

Post by snazz » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 12:42 AM UTC

I like the browsing history concept, because browsing and search history really delves deep into who someone is, but you might get a more accurate image of someone’s real-life self by using an interests questionnaire alongside or in place of browsing history to better see the offline interests someone has.

For instance, I really like cycling, but my programming-related Google searches eclipse my cycling-related ones by a huge margin, so your hypothetical algorithm would rank programming as a much greater interest than cycling, even if I spend about equal amounts of time on each.