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I could probably post a similar gizmo on HN with a results static page that says Your interests are: (some subset of) Programming Science Technology Games <ran

I could probably post a similar gizmo on HN with a results static page that says Your interests are: (some subset of) Programming Science Technology Games <random other thing: Sports, TV, childcare, etc> With literally no scripting, and everyone would find it "reasonably accurate" :D

mdup 12y ago
At first, I thought the OP had done exactly that!
- jradd 12y ago
  Same thing here. I happen to be very interested in neuroscience as well, so when I read “don't forget to view source,” I assumed it would feature a bibliographic citation or something. doh…
- lugg 12y ago
  Also successfully trolled. And I also thought something similar after trying to trick it a couple of times. Wasn't until I read the comments it all made sense - i was using work chrome profile none of my actual interests showed up just my professional ones.
briancaw2 12y ago
fwiw, my results were very wrong
- wobbleblob 12y ago
  It uses a list of sites, the ones that are in your browser history are red squares. The results may be wrong for you if you cleared your browser history, or if you share your browser with someone else, or if you habitually visit sites you don't like.
  - duaneb 12y ago
    Yes. Apparently I don't visit many programming websites, although that's mostly what I do, and I visit more gaming sites than anything. (I only play mario kart on my Wii occasionally.)
- kephra 12y ago
  The selected sites are very biased towards things you can do in front of a computers. So this nice "Who am I?" trick only shows an intersection of my interest with those of the author. e.g. its completely missing my 3 main hobbies, as sailing, sewing and vaping had not been on his list of selected sites.
  - Conlectus 12y ago
    I tried not to make the subjects biased, and many (most) of the interests are not those that I have. However, I could only include high-level, reasonable common interests, as including more would cause there to be too many squares.
espadrine 12y ago
> Your interests are: (some subset of) Programming Science Technology Games <random other thing: Sports, TV, childcare, etc> Me being me, I clicked on random grey squares. I got exactly that. There is a selection bias from the choice of URLs it provides.
- ralfd 12y ago
  Haha, tried it out and you are right. I an a bit disappointed by the results anyway. Something like gender guess, sexual orientation, age range and political leaning would have been more impressive than the programming/movies graph.
- Conlectus 12y ago
  That's because you probably clicked in roughly the same area. The squares are grouped on the page by interest. Somebody else clicked all of the squares, and art was #1, with painting #3.
kej 12y ago
That would be sort of a specialized version of the Forer effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect

mdup 12y ago

At first, I thought the OP had done exactly that!

jradd 12y ago
Same thing here. I happen to be very interested in neuroscience as well, so when I read “don't forget to view source,” I assumed it would feature a bibliographic citation or something. doh…
lugg 12y ago
Also successfully trolled. And I also thought something similar after trying to trick it a couple of times. Wasn't until I read the comments it all made sense - i was using work chrome profile none of my actual interests showed up just my professional ones.

briancaw2 12y ago

fwiw, my results were very wrong

wobbleblob 12y ago
It uses a list of sites, the ones that are in your browser history are red squares. The results may be wrong for you if you cleared your browser history, or if you share your browser with someone else, or if you habitually visit sites you don't like.
- duaneb 12y ago
  Yes. Apparently I don't visit many programming websites, although that's mostly what I do, and I visit more gaming sites than anything. (I only play mario kart on my Wii occasionally.)
kephra 12y ago
The selected sites are very biased towards things you can do in front of a computers. So this nice "Who am I?" trick only shows an intersection of my interest with those of the author. e.g. its completely missing my 3 main hobbies, as sailing, sewing and vaping had not been on his list of selected sites.
- Conlectus 12y ago
  I tried not to make the subjects biased, and many (most) of the interests are not those that I have. However, I could only include high-level, reasonable common interests, as including more would cause there to be too many squares.

espadrine 12y ago

> Your interests are: (some subset of) Programming Science Technology Games <random other thing: Sports, TV, childcare, etc> Me being me, I clicked on random grey squares. I got exactly that. There is a selection bias from the choice of URLs it provides.

ralfd 12y ago
Haha, tried it out and you are right. I an a bit disappointed by the results anyway. Something like gender guess, sexual orientation, age range and political leaning would have been more impressive than the programming/movies graph.
Conlectus 12y ago
That's because you probably clicked in roughly the same area. The squares are grouped on the page by interest. Somebody else clicked all of the squares, and art was #1, with painting #3.

kej 12y ago

That would be sort of a specialized version of the Forer effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect