See also: the front page of HN. You didn’t think that was an algorithm choosing which stories you see, did you? :)
It works well. And considering how much effect HN has on our daily lives, it’s neat that the algorithm reduces to “this human has good taste.”
I see no reason why HN won’t be around for decades. And that’s exciting. It’s the only newspaper that feels like a community.
This used to feel strange — if you think about the position of influence and power HN commands, it’s hard to feel ok about ceding control to a handful of people, no matter how benevolent. And on certain topics this has indeed been an issue —- if a certain behavior or conversation isn’t tolerated on HN, it’s easy to feel like you’re a misfit who doesn’t belong in tech, or even that you don’t identify with the tech community.
One way to become comfortable with this situation is to trust incentives, not people. The only way HN wins is if HN stays fascinating. It’s why most of us keep coming back: to monitor the pulse of the tech scene, or to learn physics factoids[1], or to spot a new tool that saves you hours.
And that’s why HN can’t be fully automated. Which stories fascinate you? If you could write an algorithm to generate an endless stream of interesting content, you’d have invented an AI with good taste. And for the moment, that’s beyond our capabilities.[2]
[1] As the earth orbits the sun, the area swept out by the triangle formed by the sun->earth->earth3WeeksLater is equal to the area of the triangle during the next three weeks, and the next three weeks after that, and so on. Equal time periods = equal areas. That’s why the earth moves faster when it’s closer to the sun: it has to cover a greater distance in order to sweep out the same area as during the previous 3 weeks. This gives you an intuition about how gravity behaves. And with a slight tweak it also holds true for e.g. an ice skater twirling around. If you stick your leg out while spinning, your leg sweeps out more area than when it’s near your body. That’s why you spin more slowly: if you’re sweeping out more area per time period, your rotation must slow down proportionally. (This is conservation of angular momentum, dressed up in intuitive clothing.)
[2] This is in contrast with sites like YouTube, which give an endless stream of interesting videos. Part of HN’s strength is it’s unified front page. We all see the same thing. And that’s why writing an algorithm to make the front page interesting is much harder than creating a personalized neural network trained to show you all the interesting things you haven’t seen yet.
Youtube's algorithm is designed to give the viewer stuff similar to what they have already seen. Be it Goto Conference videos, Nazi rants, or wacky people doing fingernail designs. Youtube's AI is not designed take chances and offer up something 'surprising'. 'Surprising' might be offensive not enlightening.
It works well. And considering how much effect HN has on our daily lives, it’s neat that the algorithm reduces to “this human has good taste.”
I see no reason why HN won’t be around for decades. And that’s exciting. It’s the only newspaper that feels like a community.
This used to feel strange — if you think about the position of influence and power HN commands, it’s hard to feel ok about ceding control to a handful of people, no matter how benevolent. And on certain topics this has indeed been an issue —- if a certain behavior or conversation isn’t tolerated on HN, it’s easy to feel like you’re a misfit who doesn’t belong in tech, or even that you don’t identify with the tech community.
One way to become comfortable with this situation is to trust incentives, not people. The only way HN wins is if HN stays fascinating. It’s why most of us keep coming back: to monitor the pulse of the tech scene, or to learn physics factoids[1], or to spot a new tool that saves you hours.
And that’s why HN can’t be fully automated. Which stories fascinate you? If you could write an algorithm to generate an endless stream of interesting content, you’d have invented an AI with good taste. And for the moment, that’s beyond our capabilities.[2]
[1] As the earth orbits the sun, the area swept out by the triangle formed by the sun->earth->earth3WeeksLater is equal to the area of the triangle during the next three weeks, and the next three weeks after that, and so on. Equal time periods = equal areas. That’s why the earth moves faster when it’s closer to the sun: it has to cover a greater distance in order to sweep out the same area as during the previous 3 weeks. This gives you an intuition about how gravity behaves. And with a slight tweak it also holds true for e.g. an ice skater twirling around. If you stick your leg out while spinning, your leg sweeps out more area than when it’s near your body. That’s why you spin more slowly: if you’re sweeping out more area per time period, your rotation must slow down proportionally. (This is conservation of angular momentum, dressed up in intuitive clothing.)
[2] This is in contrast with sites like YouTube, which give an endless stream of interesting videos. Part of HN’s strength is it’s unified front page. We all see the same thing. And that’s why writing an algorithm to make the front page interesting is much harder than creating a personalized neural network trained to show you all the interesting things you haven’t seen yet.