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Few years ago I wanted to invent something. I didn't have any idea what, so I thought I let computer decide. What is the most simple way to describe something?
by dvh 4y ago
Few years ago I wanted to invent something. I didn't have any idea what, so I thought I let computer decide.
What is the most simple way to describe something? A noun. Ok but that already exists, I need adjective too. Still too common, let's add another adjective. I used English corpus and generated random triplets in the form of adjective-adjective-noun.
Most of it was gibberish. Occasionally there was something plausible or even viable, even more rarely something interesting. As I was reading this long list, I stumbled upon this gem:
Creepy wet uncle
And I laughed. As I continue reading the list, every once in a while there was something funny. But not once have I found words that would make me cry. Before, I thought that laughter and crying are equal but opposite emotions, but they are not. Crying requires much deeper emotional connection while all it takes to make me laugh are 3 random words.
That day I also realize why Craig Ferguson was funny (this was back when he still had the late late show), he just say or do something random. That was his secret. I felt cheated, the cheapness of laugh was exposed.
- rzzzt 4y agoThe Prior-Art-O-Matic has all the ideas for hilarious inventions: https://thesurrealist.co.uk/priorart https://thesurrealist.co.uk/priorart (There was also someone featured on HN who wrote a daily post containing 3-4 product/service ideas for a while; those had a bit more thought put into them than a RNG can provide.)
- smcameron 4y agoReminds me of the half-bakery: https://www.halfbakery.com/ https://www.halfbakery.com/
- rzzzt 4y agoWhenever I get this feeling, I start throwing search keywords at Algolia's HN index to see if I can find the article from who knows how long ago... no luck so far. But I got to Patrick Andrews' inventions page, which is very similar in style to what I'm looking for and also a fun read: https://iotd.patrickandrews.com/ https://iotd.patrickandrews.com/
- CharlesW 4y ago> That day I also realize why Craig Ferguson was funny (this was back when he still had the late late show), he just say or do something random. This may be the most reductive thing I've ever read. It did make me laugh, though!
- Elof 4y agoI think being able to make people laugh in as few words as possible is a skill, and one that's very difficult to master. It's like poetry, constraints require creativity. Creepy wet uncle, to me at least, isn't very funny, but it was likely funny at the time because of the context. Unexpected things can be funny, and it's a common way to form a joke, but coming up with novel ideas that lots of people find funny isn't an easy thing to do for most people. If it was, we probably wouldn't find it that funny. FWIW, I think this is what has made Twitter so popular. The original 140 character limit with out the ability to do tweet threads in the form we have now put a lot of constraints on people. Being thoughtful or funny in 140 characters is difficult, but a lot of folks came up with some pretty amazing insights and quips.