Hacker News Reader

I don't know. I entered, trying to be popular but at least slightly? opiniated:

Tigana, Hyperion, A Fire Upon the Deep, Blindsight, Moby Dick

and I got a list. Sure, read all that or wasn't interested for reasons, I added (only Neuromancer on initial recommendations):

Neuromancer, VALIS, Quantum Thief, Towing Jehovah.

List did not get more interesting.

Book recommendations are still kind of difficult.

View on HN

I don’t think past liked books are nearly enough information to provide a good book for you today. You need a lot more information about the state of someone’s mind.

You're talking to a dude. (in my case.) I mentioned 8 books.

I won't tell you exactly what to do, but one way to do it is to measure your surprise with me choosing each of those 8 books when you provide a recommendation back to me of what I should read next. I think I get kind of that experience talking to someone about books.

The algorithm didn't do that.

Talking to someone about books gives you so much more information than a book list. Their expressions, their accent, their energy level, their clothes, and many other things help to provide supplemental information.

If I provide that list, a (real) person doesn't ask me if I've read the Hobbit.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com