Show HN: Canon of Man – Enjoy the serendipity of browsing bookstores, anywhere
canonofman.com
canonofman.com
I know these topics tend to be regarded importantly here on HN, so I figured it worth posting here.
Happy to answer any questions and receive any feedback.
I have no idea what a flâneur is and I'm a pretty highbrow snob, who even knows some French. You're limiting your audience there.
"Canon of Man" ... it's a very imposing name that again is deterring the vast majority of your potential audience. (Especially if you're targeting mobile, which you seem to be.) (Also it doesn't fit, when the first piece of the "Canon" I land on is "The No Asshole Rule".)
Tinder-swipe paradigm didn't make any sense on the webapp. I right swipe and it pops up a side menu.
Does this thing let me read the books? Why am I swiping? How is this producing a serendipitous experience? You need to invest more time and effort explaining these things before you can get meaningful feedback on the concept.
The only purpose of this project is discovery. The serendipity comes from the way books are presented to you. They're completely random. There are no algorithms that try to "learn" what you like or any social suggestions.
When a card strikes your interest, you hit the big yellow light bulb, which shows you a snippet from the book. That snippet is intended to be a powerful, standalone idea that might inspire you to check out the full work.
So the immediate value-add is the app exposes you to new, worthwhile ideas (in contrast to most modern media, which don't) while introducing you to books you may not otherwise encounter.
In the future, once there are more items in the database, we'll have collections (i.e., Harvard Classics, Nobel Collection, Bill Gates' bookshelf, etc.) so that one can browse within a theme.