4 ms·

Interesting idea but not completely accurate. My own comment about how I hated Thinking, Fast and Slow seems to be counted as a recommendation.

by unmole 5y ago

tracyhenry 5y ago
Right, the model is not perfect with limited training dataset I have (we hand labeled 4,000 - which is already tons of work for a side project). But the intention was to filter out negative ones.
- jimmySixDOF 5y ago
  You did a stellar job here thanks so much for this addition to the community ! On labeling, if you have a method statement or some go-by referance I am sure you would get some support here - I know I would help ! Maybe package a few blocks of 100 unlabeled comments with a readme & see what happens ?
- thevagrant 5y ago
  It's not so bad if you leave the negative comments. I often find negative reviews/comments quite informative.
- indigodaddy 5y ago
  It got some titles completely wrong too. For instance, “Open: an autobiography” by Andre Agassi was erroneously listed high in the title list as “139 comments,” however most of the comments are recommending various titles that start with “Open” many/mostly related to titles with “Open source” on the name— but the ML is attributing them all to the Agassi book..
jgwil2 5y ago
Yeah, I'm seeing some issues with Code by Petzold citing comments that are talking about e.g. Code Complete or just code in general, but with such a generic name (and given the forum) it's actually pretty impressive to me that most comments are identified correctly. Edit: another one that is tough is Open by Agassi - seems most of these comments do not actually have anything to do with the book. I would guess most one-word titles will have similar issues.
- tracyhenry 5y ago
  That's correct observation. I'm guessing it has to do with whether the words after Open are indicative enough to the model that they should be brought in together with Open. As I said in other comments, with more training data this issue will likely go away. And these tough comments are the best candidates.
sampo 5y ago
> My own comment about how I hated Thinking, Fast and Slow seems to be counted as a recommendation. What is the level of sentiment analysis in natural language processing? Would it be easy to add the feature, to recognize whether the book was mentioned in a positive or negative light?
munk-a 5y ago
If you want to see some amusing "recommendations" I'd check out The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and what comments it's drawn. I think the network trying to find recommendations needs to incorporate more sentiment analysis. i.e "Guards Guards by Sir Terry Pratchett is a great book" vs. "I've never read anything as slow and uninteresting as The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkein" or "I thought Seveneves by Neal Stephenson was good - but it probably should've been two separate books with the second half actually having some meat to it."
FranklinMaillot 5y ago
Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life by Gisele Bündchen, the top model, is probably the most out of place recommendation :) None of the comments is about the book obviously, they just mention the word "Lessons". https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/15/all-time/page/0/7 https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/15/all-...
- archon810 5y ago
  Same with Primer.
dang 5y ago
Yes. I've removed the word "recommendations" from the title because there are too many cases of negative mentions being treated as recommendations. Not a criticism! Sentiment analysis seems to remain an unsolved problem. See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28598341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28598341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28596882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28596882 Edit: oops, my title edit ("Show HN: 40k books on HN extracted using deep learning") was inaccurate. It's 40k comments, not 40k books. Fixed now.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
therealdrag0 5y ago
This was an amusing "extraction": > I have not yet read the good book Atlas Shrugged but be sure to check it out based on your recommendation. You're delusional. Where did I ever recommend reading Atlas Shrugged? Ayn Rand is nuts.
dsr_ 5y ago
It also seems to have trouble with books that aren't available on Amazon -- a fair number are available through other vendors or free on various websites, and if Amazon doesn't sell it, it's not being caught.

Interesting idea but not completely accurate. My own comment about how I hated Thinking, Fast and Slow seems to be counted as a recommendation.

by unmole 5y ago

Interesting idea but not completely accurate. My own comment about how I hated Thinking, Fast and Slow seems to be counted as a recommendation.

tracyhenry 5y ago

Right, the model is not perfect with limited training dataset I have (we hand labeled 4,000 - which is already tons of work for a side project). But the intention was to filter out negative ones.

jimmySixDOF 5y ago
You did a stellar job here thanks so much for this addition to the community ! On labeling, if you have a method statement or some go-by referance I am sure you would get some support here - I know I would help ! Maybe package a few blocks of 100 unlabeled comments with a readme & see what happens ?
thevagrant 5y ago
It's not so bad if you leave the negative comments. I often find negative reviews/comments quite informative.
indigodaddy 5y ago
It got some titles completely wrong too. For instance, “Open: an autobiography” by Andre Agassi was erroneously listed high in the title list as “139 comments,” however most of the comments are recommending various titles that start with “Open” many/mostly related to titles with “Open source” on the name— but the ML is attributing them all to the Agassi book..

jgwil2 5y ago

Yeah, I'm seeing some issues with Code by Petzold citing comments that are talking about e.g. Code Complete or just code in general, but with such a generic name (and given the forum) it's actually pretty impressive to me that most comments are identified correctly. Edit: another one that is tough is Open by Agassi - seems most of these comments do not actually have anything to do with the book. I would guess most one-word titles will have similar issues.

tracyhenry 5y ago
That's correct observation. I'm guessing it has to do with whether the words after Open are indicative enough to the model that they should be brought in together with Open. As I said in other comments, with more training data this issue will likely go away. And these tough comments are the best candidates.

sampo 5y ago

> My own comment about how I hated Thinking, Fast and Slow seems to be counted as a recommendation. What is the level of sentiment analysis in natural language processing? Would it be easy to add the feature, to recognize whether the book was mentioned in a positive or negative light?

munk-a 5y ago

If you want to see some amusing "recommendations" I'd check out The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and what comments it's drawn. I think the network trying to find recommendations needs to incorporate more sentiment analysis. i.e "Guards Guards by Sir Terry Pratchett is a great book" vs. "I've never read anything as slow and uninteresting as The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkein" or "I thought Seveneves by Neal Stephenson was good - but it probably should've been two separate books with the second half actually having some meat to it."

FranklinMaillot 5y ago

Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life by Gisele Bündchen, the top model, is probably the most out of place recommendation :) None of the comments is about the book obviously, they just mention the word "Lessons". https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/15/all-time/page/0/7 https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/15/all-...

archon810 5y ago
Same with Primer.

dang 5y ago

Yes. I've removed the word "recommendations" from the title because there are too many cases of negative mentions being treated as recommendations. Not a criticism! Sentiment analysis seems to remain an unsolved problem. See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28598341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28598341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28596882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28596882 Edit: oops, my title edit ("Show HN: 40k books on HN extracted using deep learning") was inaccurate. It's 40k comments, not 40k books. Fixed now.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

therealdrag0 5y ago

This was an amusing "extraction": > I have not yet read the good book Atlas Shrugged but be sure to check it out based on your recommendation. You're delusional. Where did I ever recommend reading Atlas Shrugged? Ayn Rand is nuts.

dsr_ 5y ago

It also seems to have trouble with books that aren't available on Amazon -- a fair number are available through other vendors or free on various websites, and if Amazon doesn't sell it, it's not being caught.