3 ms·

Show HN: Topic modeling over Paul Graham's essays

20 points by futureishere 9y ago

sutee 9y ago
Negativity (Mean, Meanness, Patents) ... did you filter out cases where mean was used in a statistical sense?
- futureishere 9y ago
  That's a really good point! No, I did not, although in hindsight I should have had thought about that. As I had mentioned in the README, the modeling perhaps is not very high quality, but I surely do hope to make it better once I get some free time. Thanks for your suggestion! Means a lot :-)
futureishere 9y ago
So, I guess the post has been sort of banned from HN as I cannot see it either on Hacker News trending/new/show pages. It was trending on the front page for quite some time, just sometime ago (so obviously it wasn't downvoted into oblivion). I guess I will have to live with that :(
camillomiller 9y ago
People, are you seriously this crazy about Paul Graham here? I really don't get it. Hacker News is like some sort of PG echo chamber. "Background: Paul Graham is probably one of the most influential technology pundit[s] of our times." SERIOUSLY? Small hint: he's not.
- futureishere 9y ago
  Hey! I am sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way. It was definitely not my intention to eulogize Paul Graham unnecessarily. I wrote that out of sincerity, I genuinely feel that his essays have been highly educational for me, and for a lot of my friends as well. Maybe his essays have not had the same effect on you, and a lot of other people. I guess if enough people complain about it, I'd edit that line out of the README, no questions asked. I'd also like to add that I mentioned, "one of the.." and "pundit[s]" implying that there are many others who'd be in the club, and Paul Graham isn't the only or most influential. Hope that helps!
  - camillomiller 9y ago
    Don't get me wrong, what you've done is cool, and everybody's free to just love this or that "pundit" (PG is a lot of things, but I wouldn't call him a pundit). It's just that here on HN sometimes PG's writing's treated like the fifth Gospel. Sorry if it came out harsher than I wanted, I had a hard day with a hard client. :)
    - futureishere 9y ago
      No worries, I totally understand :-)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- viswanathk 9y ago
  U mad bruh?
- cuspycode 9y ago
  Lacking an exact measure that we can all agree on, "influential" is kind of subjective. So I'll contribute with my subjective opinion: Paul Graham's essays are (collectively) among the highest quality content that I have found on the Internet. They are the opposite of click-bait and attention-spam. I don't agree with everything Paul writes, but so far I have never regretted spending the time to read one of his essays. This is rare in today's Internet environment. I can only think of Scott Aaronson and a few others who are comparable. But to repeat myself, this is my subjective opinion.
  - futureishere 9y ago
    I totally agree with your view!

20 points by futureishere 9y ago

sutee 9y ago

Negativity (Mean, Meanness, Patents) ... did you filter out cases where mean was used in a statistical sense?

futureishere 9y ago
That's a really good point! No, I did not, although in hindsight I should have had thought about that. As I had mentioned in the README, the modeling perhaps is not very high quality, but I surely do hope to make it better once I get some free time. Thanks for your suggestion! Means a lot :-)

futureishere 9y ago

So, I guess the post has been sort of banned from HN as I cannot see it either on Hacker News trending/new/show pages. It was trending on the front page for quite some time, just sometime ago (so obviously it wasn't downvoted into oblivion). I guess I will have to live with that :(

camillomiller 9y ago

People, are you seriously this crazy about Paul Graham here? I really don't get it. Hacker News is like some sort of PG echo chamber. "Background: Paul Graham is probably one of the most influential technology pundit[s] of our times." SERIOUSLY? Small hint: he's not.

futureishere 9y ago
Hey! I am sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way. It was definitely not my intention to eulogize Paul Graham unnecessarily. I wrote that out of sincerity, I genuinely feel that his essays have been highly educational for me, and for a lot of my friends as well. Maybe his essays have not had the same effect on you, and a lot of other people. I guess if enough people complain about it, I'd edit that line out of the README, no questions asked. I'd also like to add that I mentioned, "one of the.." and "pundit[s]" implying that there are many others who'd be in the club, and Paul Graham isn't the only or most influential. Hope that helps!
- camillomiller 9y ago
  Don't get me wrong, what you've done is cool, and everybody's free to just love this or that "pundit" (PG is a lot of things, but I wouldn't call him a pundit). It's just that here on HN sometimes PG's writing's treated like the fifth Gospel. Sorry if it came out harsher than I wanted, I had a hard day with a hard client. :)
  - futureishere 9y ago
    No worries, I totally understand :-)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
viswanathk 9y ago
U mad bruh?
cuspycode 9y ago
Lacking an exact measure that we can all agree on, "influential" is kind of subjective. So I'll contribute with my subjective opinion: Paul Graham's essays are (collectively) among the highest quality content that I have found on the Internet. They are the opposite of click-bait and attention-spam. I don't agree with everything Paul writes, but so far I have never regretted spending the time to read one of his essays. This is rare in today's Internet environment. I can only think of Scott Aaronson and a few others who are comparable. But to repeat myself, this is my subjective opinion.
- futureishere 9y ago
  I totally agree with your view!