What would Paul Graham do?
Productivity
search tool
SHOW HN2012
What would Paul Graham do?
It's really just a tool we built for ourselves to get information from a specific trusted source.
wwpgd.com#paul graham essays#hacker news search#essay search#paul graham
How HN took it
11 positive, 21 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 6 critical, out of 39 comments about the project. Thread score +0.17.
Idea: 5 for, 4 againstExecution: 4 for, 1 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful for finding Paul Graham's writing
From 3 comments
This is just the worst kind of critique. This is a useful tool, I often find myself searching for something I had read that PG had said and having a difficult time. He's written…
tomasien on HNIt appears to work. I asked it where to go for lunch, and the first reference to lunch it found was Oren's Hummus.
pg on HNProps for putting a compelling spin ("WWPGD") on a rather mundane function (searching a back catalog). Marketing FTW! :-)
freejack on HN
Fun and clever naming and marketing
From 2 comments
Props for putting a compelling spin ("WWPGD") on a rather mundane function (searching a back catalog). Marketing FTW! :-)
freejack on HNThe naming, though may sound cheesy to some, is a great marketing tactic to get noticed. You can of course think of <<fill your favorite trusted source>> person here. But if you…
skrish on HN
Objections
Seen as hero worship of a single author
From 2 comments
pg would probably use logic, experience and a little bit of gut feel to figure out the best way to solve an issue, not refer to a single source of someone else's writings. Stop…
run4yourlives on HNThis is kind of creepy. The online equivalent of building a shrine.
hnriot on HN
Only indexes top 1000 comments, incomplete coverage
From 1 comment
The site only indexes comments by pg, I guess in the 1000 comments that have been indexed, none of them talk mention clojure. I'm trying to hack around ThriftDB's search api [1]…
kevinwuhoo on HN
Lacks example queries and guidance
From 2 comments
suggestion: show some examples. I honestly have no clue what should I input on the search field.
riffraff on HNIt says to 'ask PG a question', so I tried a bunch of things I thought would find plenty of results: * "How to grow a userbase" * "Find a mentor" * "Disrupt a market" Only the…
luke_s on HN
Requests
Show why each result matched or bold matches
From 2 comments
Very fun little tool. It would make it exceptional if you would include a small tidbit of information beneath each listing to say why the particular essay matched the query.
randomdrake on HNYup if you could bold the matches Google-style that would be awesomely helpful.
ianstormtaylor on HN
Support multiple authors for comparison
From 2 comments
Would be nice to see more of this for different persons and to compare different people writings on the same subjects.
psycho on HNExactly what I was thinking. A search engine with "author:" and "topic:" refinements to contrast the writing of various folks on some topic or in reaction to some event. I'd love…
incision on HN
Add suggested queries or examples
From 2 comments
suggestion: show some examples. I honestly have no clue what should I input on the search field.
riffraff on HNIt says to 'ask PG a question', so I tried a bunch of things I thought would find plenty of results: * "How to grow a userbase" * "Find a mentor" * "Disrupt a market" Only the…
luke_s on HN
Make layout responsive for tablets and mobile
From 1 comment
nice litte app :) I don't why some people are bashing this, I think its actually useful. I especially like the idea of what would X do, and then having a searchable repository of…
jfaucett on HN
Questions
What is it built with
From 1 comment
What's it built with?
theotherone on HN
Can it index all of Paul Graham's comments
From 1 comment
The site only indexes comments by pg, I guess in the 1000 comments that have been indexed, none of them talk mention clojure. I'm trying to hack around ThriftDB's search api [1]…
kevinwuhoo on HN
Alternatives named
Google with site: search
From 1 comment
that's what google is for, site:
hnriot on HN
HNSearch API
From 2 comments
The site only indexes comments by pg, I guess in the 1000 comments that have been indexed, none of them talk mention clojure. I'm trying to hack around ThriftDB's search api [1]…
kevinwuhoo on HNIf you query the HNSearch API in real-time you won't run into problems with the 1000 result limit. There are 8 comments where PG mentioned "clojure":…
andres on HN