Ah, I wondered if anyone was going to spot this Easter egg! Yeah, the list isn’t public. This might sound outrageously petty, but having spend so long compiling it, I feel strange about giving it away or making it freely available for other people to copy.
I’ve trying to work out what to do with it and the rest of the algorithm I designed. If I wasn’t so un-enthused about start ups I’d want to build something that just randomly gave you one of the suggestions (the suggestions are just text) as that seems to be the easiest version to do. Maybe that will happen at some point. Honestly I’m not sure what to do.
Can you explain how I might do that? You can just provide a link if it’s easier. The source code for the current app is held by David, my co-founder, who seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth (at least with regards to my emails to him). The list of happiness-suggestions is just in a spreadsheet.
You’d make a repository on e.g. GitHub and upload the code there. Then other people can see it and suggest changes, or can fork (make a copy of) the repository and start their own thing based off it.
Pushing the code into the open is the easy part; if the technical cofounder was on board with open sourcing it that would be very easy for them. The hard parts are things like:
Does the code contain anything you don’t have the rights to share?
Does the code contain any passwords, tokens, or other secrets? (It shouldn’t, but this is common.)
Is the code a mess that they’re worried would reflect poorly on them as a developer? (Very likely; I deal with this by just pushing things publicly anyway, but I also have a good enough traditional resume that I’m not reliant on my github resume.)
If your goal is to make the world a better place, just making the list available seems like the most Effective and Altruistic way of doing that, no? Software developers tend to be way too afraid somebody will “steal their ideas” as the best ideas are HARD to popularize. Nobody but you sees as much value in YOUR ideas as they do in their OWN ideas. In practice, good ideas are cheap; what matters most is following through with implementation (and being lucky and having good timing...)
Keeping your ideas secret might prevent other people from stealing them but also prevents other people from IMPROVING them. Or sometimes even HEARING ABOUT them.
If you want to make something to randomise the text suggestions, you might be able to do it pretty quickly and easily with Guided Track.
Personally, I think I would find it more helpful looking at the whole list than being given a random suggestion from it. If you wanted to give people that option without making it publicly available for free, you could put the list on the private and unsearchable Facebook group EA self help, with a request not to share.
you might be able to do it pretty quickly and easily with Guided Track
Interesting. Will think about this. Not sure I should prioritise this pre-thesis submission. The reason I wrote the post-mortem was so I could move on from Hippo.
If you wanted to give people that option without making it publicly available for free, you could put the list on the private and unsearchable Facebook group EA self help, with a request not to share.
Also interesting. I might be too paranoid/precious to do this, but will think about it.
Can you elaborate? I’m not really sure what you have in mind. ‘Quick self-published book’ sounds like an oxymoron. I’d like to publish a book on happiness at some point, but would hope for it not to be self-published.
Basically, you can sell an e-book for a small amount, like $0-5. The e-book is way more detailed than a typical blog post, but is way less detailed than a full book you’d buy for ~$30 at your local bookstore. You get a small amount of money and can also collect emails and use them to build a list for further marketing. This is a pretty common thing a lot of online entrepreneurs seem to do.
Ah, I wondered if anyone was going to spot this Easter egg! Yeah, the list isn’t public. This might sound outrageously petty, but having spend so long compiling it, I feel strange about giving it away or making it freely available for other people to copy.
I’ve trying to work out what to do with it and the rest of the algorithm I designed. If I wasn’t so un-enthused about start ups I’d want to build something that just randomly gave you one of the suggestions (the suggestions are just text) as that seems to be the easiest version to do. Maybe that will happen at some point. Honestly I’m not sure what to do.
Has the list been made public, or has the app been made open-source yet?
Have you given any consideration to open sourcing what you do have?
Can you explain how I might do that? You can just provide a link if it’s easier. The source code for the current app is held by David, my co-founder, who seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth (at least with regards to my emails to him). The list of happiness-suggestions is just in a spreadsheet.
You’d make a repository on e.g. GitHub and upload the code there. Then other people can see it and suggest changes, or can fork (make a copy of) the repository and start their own thing based off it.
Pushing the code into the open is the easy part; if the technical cofounder was on board with open sourcing it that would be very easy for them. The hard parts are things like:
Does the code contain anything you don’t have the rights to share?
Does the code contain any passwords, tokens, or other secrets? (It shouldn’t, but this is common.)
Is the code a mess that they’re worried would reflect poorly on them as a developer? (Very likely; I deal with this by just pushing things publicly anyway, but I also have a good enough traditional resume that I’m not reliant on my github resume.)
If your goal is to make the world a better place, just making the list available seems like the most Effective and Altruistic way of doing that, no? Software developers tend to be way too afraid somebody will “steal their ideas” as the best ideas are HARD to popularize. Nobody but you sees as much value in YOUR ideas as they do in their OWN ideas. In practice, good ideas are cheap; what matters most is following through with implementation (and being lucky and having good timing...)
Keeping your ideas secret might prevent other people from stealing them but also prevents other people from IMPROVING them. Or sometimes even HEARING ABOUT them.
If you want to make something to randomise the text suggestions, you might be able to do it pretty quickly and easily with Guided Track. Personally, I think I would find it more helpful looking at the whole list than being given a random suggestion from it. If you wanted to give people that option without making it publicly available for free, you could put the list on the private and unsearchable Facebook group EA self help, with a request not to share.
Interesting. Will think about this. Not sure I should prioritise this pre-thesis submission. The reason I wrote the post-mortem was so I could move on from Hippo.
Also interesting. I might be too paranoid/precious to do this, but will think about it.
Maybe turn it into a quick self-published book or something?
Can you elaborate? I’m not really sure what you have in mind. ‘Quick self-published book’ sounds like an oxymoron. I’d like to publish a book on happiness at some point, but would hope for it not to be self-published.
Basically, you can sell an e-book for a small amount, like $0-5. The e-book is way more detailed than a typical blog post, but is way less detailed than a full book you’d buy for ~$30 at your local bookstore. You get a small amount of money and can also collect emails and use them to build a list for further marketing. This is a pretty common thing a lot of online entrepreneurs seem to do.
If you’re short on time, you might be able to have someone ghostwrite it for a lump sum or co-write it with you for a share of the profit.