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Show HN: I Made a Tinder for Audiobooks

3 points by leobg 4y ago

leobg 4y ago
Hi HN! I just built this. It's a tool for "random sampling" audiobooks. :) I read a lot of books, but I always find it hard to discover the next book worth reading. Reviews are second-hand knowledge, and often contradicting. And when I try to search based on my own ideas about what topics, authors or narrators I *think* I would like, it easily becomes a mental prison from which the world of books seems so much smaller than it really is... There was a post here on HN last week that mentioned random sampling. I can't seem to find it anymore. But the author argued, when the search space of something is too big for one humans brain to grok the full landscape, just randomly picking an item and rolling with it can really help. That idea stuck with me. And so I built this tool, to apply it to audiobooks! I think it's quite fun to use: 1. When you open the site, it starts playing a random audiobook sample. 2. You can skip, or you can give a score between 1 and 5. 3. All the titles that you scored are being kept in your personal favorites list, sorted by your score. The titles that you liked best automatically rise to the top of that list. Which makes it really easy to decide what to read next. The samples, for now, are straight from Audible. There is an option to deselect certain categories. Otherwise, it's totally random. I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to ask any questions. P.S. On desktop, you can use keyboard shortcuts (1-5 to rate and spacebar to skip). Also, if you create an account, that'll save your progress and allow you to access and extend your book list across devices.
csw-001 4y ago
It’s for book-ups, not hookups .
- leobg 4y ago
  That’s a great tag line! :)
unsupp0rted 4y ago
I'd really love for someone to make a Tinder for childfree people. Listing (audio)book preferences optional but encouraged. My friend sent me a clone of one today, but it's only for the UK and only in the UK App Store.
- leobg 4y ago
  Are you saying that swiping on Tinder is inefficient for you because you are being forced to swipe on people who have children which you would prefer to be excluded from the profiles suggested to you?
  - unsupp0rted 4y ago
    Exactly this. If there were a "Tinder for X" (i.e. "dating app for X") where the entire userbase is childfree people, you could name your Platinum membership price and I'd pay it twice over. Add a "this user said in messages that they are actually not childfree" reporting option and I'll pay triple.
    - leobg 4y ago
      So what percentage of your matches have turned out to be unsuitable for you because they were, in fact, not childfree? Are we talking 20%, 80%?
      - unsupp0rted 4y ago
        Of otherwise viable matches? 95% More than 9 times out of 10 if I match and chat with someone otherwise interesting/interested, having children turns out to be a deal-breaker: they either have them or want them, more likely the former. I've started putting "childfree" and "say hi if you are also childfree" in my bio, in my username, etc, but I still get matched by false positives regularly. Plus I miss out on all the childfree people who have given up on dating sites for the same reasons I have.
        leobg 4y ago
        Not sure if I can help with the “want them“ part. But perhaps at least analyzing the profile is something that could be automated to make your own time in the app better spent. How many of those 9.5 people actually do have anything in their profile that would’ve conclusively shown you that they either have of want children if you had seen it before you swiped right on them?

3 points by leobg 4y ago

Hi HN! I just built this. It's a tool for "random sampling" audiobooks. :) I read a lot of books, but I always find it hard to discover the next book worth reading. Reviews are second-hand knowledge, and often contradicting. And when I try to search based on my own ideas about what topics, authors or narrators I *think* I would like, it easily becomes a mental prison from which the world of books seems so much smaller than it really is... There was a post here on HN last week that mentioned random sampling. I can't seem to find it anymore. But the author argued, when the search space of something is too big for one humans brain to grok the full landscape, just randomly picking an item and rolling with it can really help. That idea stuck with me. And so I built this tool, to apply it to audiobooks! I think it's quite fun to use: 1. When you open the site, it starts playing a random audiobook sample. 2. You can skip, or you can give a score between 1 and 5. 3. All the titles that you scored are being kept in your personal favorites list, sorted by your score. The titles that you liked best automatically rise to the top of that list. Which makes it really easy to decide what to read next. The samples, for now, are straight from Audible. There is an option to deselect certain categories. Otherwise, it's totally random. I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to ask any questions. P.S. On desktop, you can use keyboard shortcuts (1-5 to rate and spacebar to skip). Also, if you create an account, that'll save your progress and allow you to access and extend your book list across devices.

csw-001 4y ago

It’s for book-ups, not hookups .

leobg 4y ago
That’s a great tag line! :)

unsupp0rted 4y ago

I'd really love for someone to make a Tinder for childfree people. Listing (audio)book preferences optional but encouraged. My friend sent me a clone of one today, but it's only for the UK and only in the UK App Store.

leobg 4y ago
Are you saying that swiping on Tinder is inefficient for you because you are being forced to swipe on people who have children which you would prefer to be excluded from the profiles suggested to you?
- unsupp0rted 4y ago
  Exactly this. If there were a "Tinder for X" (i.e. "dating app for X") where the entire userbase is childfree people, you could name your Platinum membership price and I'd pay it twice over. Add a "this user said in messages that they are actually not childfree" reporting option and I'll pay triple.
  - leobg 4y ago
    So what percentage of your matches have turned out to be unsuitable for you because they were, in fact, not childfree? Are we talking 20%, 80%?
    - unsupp0rted 4y ago
      Of otherwise viable matches? 95% More than 9 times out of 10 if I match and chat with someone otherwise interesting/interested, having children turns out to be a deal-breaker: they either have them or want them, more likely the former. I've started putting "childfree" and "say hi if you are also childfree" in my bio, in my username, etc, but I still get matched by false positives regularly. Plus I miss out on all the childfree people who have given up on dating sites for the same reasons I have.
      - leobg 4y ago
        Not sure if I can help with the “want them“ part. But perhaps at least analyzing the profile is something that could be automated to make your own time in the app better spent. How many of those 9.5 people actually do have anything in their profile that would’ve conclusively shown you that they either have of want children if you had seen it before you swiped right on them?