Show HN: I'm trying to guess your personality by your comments with an NLP model | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: I'm trying to guess your personality by your comments with an NLP model

ezpersonality.com

179 pointsmuttled194 comments

I think it's complete bullshit and I fell for it. sigh

As a matter of fact, both Hackernews and reddit accounts have wildly different results. Also, the response is way to quick to fetch all comments from either platform (and you're not telling me you scraped reddit completely, don't you?).

Seems to be hugged to death now. So I cannot try with a nonexistent account id.

This is nothing more impressive than the horoscope in the newspaper. It's a cold read and people will always fall for it because they believe what they want to hear.

I find it even less impressive than most horoscopes. At least horoscopes skillfully make use of the Barnum effect[0] to trick people into believing the reading. The results of this on my own users, on the other hand, are much too specific to pretend to hide how wildly inaccurate they are.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_effect

> Also, the response is way to quick to fetch all comments from either platform

I didn't try the Reddit thingy, but for HN there is the algolia index, which is close to instant.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

This is correct. I'm able to grab most users' comment histories in under a second and it tells the data sources at the bottom.

> both Hackernews and reddit accounts have wildly different results

why is that unusual, HN is more focused so the comments trend towards work, whereas Reddit is a lot more general.

If HN was so focused, that one guy wouldn't have founded the even more "computing-focused" lobste.rs. Mind you, I like it this way, it gives me "food for thought" in both computing and non-computing related fields...

For both Reddit and HN there are complete dumps that you can download easily within much less than a day. I have worked with both, the reddit dump from pushshift ist quite big (https://files.pushshift.io/reddit/ several TB?). Scraping HN completely from the API is much, much smaller, around a few GB if I remember correctly.

But of course this is still bullshit and doesn't really use that data.

why do you say that?

I switch reddit accounts every year. It gave mostly consistent results for my last five accounts.

I think there's a lot of value in harvesting usernames of active HNers. Maybe I'm being paranoid/cynical, but I think y'all just got Cambridge-Analytica'd

You guys are vastly overestimating how much thought I put into this. I cranked it out in a week on PTO.

From the outside, it's indistinguishable from Cambridge Analytica. For extra irony: Cambridge Analytica's quiz masquaraded as a personality test[1].

1. https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-personality-test-ca...

I don't own a sodastream. I've never researched sodastream. Anyone wanna guess what the product placement was?

This feels a lot like it's a Trojan hor(o)s(cop)e, delivering a payload of sodastream affiliate links.

You got the soda stream one too huh?

Ironically though, I have bought some of the bottles of their syrup, but only to use as a sweetener for my tea/juice while adding another flavour.

So it's not entirely wrong about mixing drink concoctions.

All 4 names I tried (the first 4 posters on the front page) got the Sodastream placement.

I got a sodastream and earplugs for musicians depending on which account I used.

I got a resin printer link, and was also kind of wondering why or how the AI knows about these products. What data associates me with this resin printer and you with the sodastream?

A pretty smart one though I have to admit. We’re talking about it now on HN, which by itself is an achievement.

I got the recommendation for an ergonomic vertical mouse from anker… that I already own. And don’t use because meh.

Anyway, the supposed personality analysis is not so good in my opinion.

Mods asleep, post some ads?

Same, I don’t even drink soda never mind own a sodastream!

I was shocked when he "knew" I had a sodastream.

I wanted to believe this thing so badly. It had nice things to say about me.

I own both a sodastream and resin printer. They can't sell anything to me. Too late :D

Ah yes but do you cook at home or want a steady supply of razors? Or maybe you need a VPN, you know, just in case?

I am apparently one of those sodastream personality types, too.

Thanks for the lols. Unfortunately not accurate at all, I've found more rings of truth in actual horoscopes (libra). Mildly disappointing but I think that's just me being spoiled by incredible AI progress elsewhere. In theory I would think a better model should be able to spit out something that correlates a lot closer with one's OCEAN traits from even small writing samples.

Happy birthday recently or soon

Heh, thanks, it was earlier this month. I've been telling people I'm two years younger than I am, after adjusting for pandemic

I have no faith in horoscopes at all. Both my parents are libra but neither fits that profile and they are different from each other in significant ways on many fronts. They are a perfect match though for each other.

Sounds like a balance was reached

Indeed! Those scales are balanced. Maybe the symbol is correct even though none of the traits are a good match. They each accepted the other's characteristics that they liked and ignored those they didn't care for figuring that it all balanced out in the end. I can dig it.

Hm. AI powered psychic maybe.

https://beta.character.ai/chat?char=pIyOeG445ZYwPjw7qnPCpcEm...

Considering some of the comments already in this thread it seems the space considered is significant and at least it's a horoscope that is tailored to the audience, i.e. it's not merely twelve (or so) categories.

It's up to debate I guess if a well tailored horoscope is equivalent to an assessment, but technically both accomplish the same thing. The scary thing is both are indistinguishable from magic from where I stand. And I do put way more faith in the machine as opposed to a stranger who (arguably) knows less facts about me.

I actually really like the idea of guessing personality traits from how I write on the Internet. It's a fun novelty.

Now the question is: do I get into Internet arguments with people that have a different/opposed primary theme? Could be an interesting follow up.

Fun!

If someone reads the comments first, try this in a private/incognito window please! (Then compare in non-incognito)

There’s a clever product recommendation section, and the test will say “you might own…” and it showed me something I was considering to buy the other day!

For me, it suggested something that I have actually owned twice...no, wait, three times, over the years. Lol!

Don't drink soda, and would never bother with a soda stream... sorry, try something else next time.

I was wary of this, as it felt kind of like a horoscope that could apply to anyone.

At the risk of TMI, I left a cult, which was the faith of my family. During that process, I experienced severe spite, grief, and joined religious recovery subreddits to vent, find community, and learn and struggle together with others like me.

Over the years, I wasn't pleased with my tone. I was angry at my previous faith and its leaders for misleading me, and I spoke out about it. Being afraid I was giving too much information about myself on Reddit, and not wanting to get doxxed, I started a new account on Reddit 3 separate times over the years. I ran the analysis on each of the 3, and it captured the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes I had at the time accurately to a point. I'm glad they included the confidence level, because the primary analysis was freakishly spot on, while the lower rungs we're hit and miss.

I'm kind of taken aback. Here, a cold, calculating machine is breaking down the progress I made as an individual. It was a pretty vulnerable experience.

It could totally fake and I could be totally duped, but I don't care enough for it to matter because this rewarding feeling is worth it.

Thanks OP. You took me on a journey.

Powerful story. You took us on a journey too

For what it's worth I looked at my reddit account and my hackernews account and they share one personality element in common. My perspective on this is that it's closer to cold reading type stuff - throw out a lot of traits, each of which applies to a lot of people, and then people will naturally find that a lot of what you've said applies to them.

Maybe another way you could test it is give it a day or two until you've forgotten what this website says. Then, write down a short description of yourself at each of the three stages. Finally, check three random accounts and see how much overlap there is between the random accounts and your self-descriptions.

Might also be that people present themselves differently on the two platforms. HN is more about professional discussion while Reddit is more about talking about hobbies.

But did you buy the soda stream?

I read a lot of personality test books, including some of Jung's work, when I was a teenager. The tests don't work. You can get almost as good results by randomly picking a type and seeing if your personality matches -- if the technique is sold to you well enough, it will seem to match, simply due to your own imagination.

Or, these days, the imaginations of marketing people and product designers and their algorithms that recommend us the dumbest, most irrelevant, grossest junk.

How many times did each of you see YouTube recommendations for that Johnny Depp trial? It was 50% of my recommendations one day, like 16/30 videos, and I never clicked on one or anything like it.

So much for profiling

Isn't working for me. The submit button doesn't do anything

Wait a bit, it takes some time.

This tool needs better UX:

- A loading bar, or some feedback that it is "analyzing data"

- clicking on "Reddit" or "Hacker News" doesn't select the radio buttons

It's not just not loading, it's not even making any network requests. Seems broken.

The requests seem to go through a websocket which won't show in the dev tools unless they're open when you open the page

If you are looking on a small screen device, after pressing the button you need to scroll down a bit.

Same for me. I tried waiting for a bit but still nothing.

update: worked for me after letting the page sit for 5+ minutes.

I don't know if your service is getting hugged or what, but I can see it send off the websocket mouse click events, but it never seems to receive an actionable response. Just regular small packets I assume are keep-alives. Why does it send the screen and client size data back? Fingerprinting? I never see it send either the username, and it mentions the other site when I change it in the UI. What advantage does a websocket offer here over a standard xml http request to a regular API?

Is this just an ad for sodastream?

It is a sign of what's to come...

SaaS: Sodastream as a Service?

> You have lots of patience and can be patient with others

that's 'cause you didn't see my deleted HN comments...

I didn't use it. From the comments it seems that most people are happy to give up their personal information. I assume that the poster now has a reasonably noiseless database of IPs and hn/reddit profiles. This is obviously highly valuable for marketing as it can be fused with existing profiles and then datamined across a large number of posts.

Also highly illegal in the EU. So if the author does this and reads this comment: Better stay where you are or you might get fined into oblivion.

> This is obviously highly valuable for marketing

Yes, all that from data from tens of people is going to rake in the big $$

"Sodastream prices skyrocket! Market unsure of cause!"

By virtue of your account name, you already gave it up. This site lets you decide to do it, despite the fact that it's already happened perhaps many times without your knowledge.

An oddly cynical take. If it's true, I'll do us both a favor and look up your name instead of mine.

There's no limit to the number of names you can query, so it's really a pretty poor way to associate usernames with ips with any certainty.

Yeah. I actually fed a bunch of reddit usernames into it from a bunch of subs I visit and some random ones. I used people who posted frequently on those subs. The funny thing is that it apparently has a limited list of characteristics to assign. Maybe we collectively have a very limited feature set?

Who knew I enjoy testing features and breaking things?

There was a huge amount of repetition in the results, especially for the part where the results mention that it may not be ready for real life so send feedback. I did see a lot of other product recommendations though so it isn't stuck on sodastream like others have suggested.

This is probably good for a drunk party night game where everyone can laugh at the analyses it spits out about each other. I'm not convinced it is a useful tool for anything else except for maybe affiliate link income in the product recommendations for the site owner.

It seems designed to be an ego stroker, like horoscopes.

I think I am more likely to believe the spooky action at a distance feel of a horoscope over this NLP output.

I think it’s very heavily weighted by the subreddits you post in rather than the content of your posts. This was clear to me when I tried my different Reddit usernames that are both very educational and similar tone but focus on completely separate businesses.

I'm guessing a lot of HN users didn't enter their own username, and even if you did, you can still contaminate your data by entering another one.

Looks like my usernames will now be associated with one of mullvad's IPs

This is a Rorschach test of course.

Taking the bait, it’s interesting to compare my Reddit and HN accounts pre-transition with my Reddit account post-transition. The former two have eerily similar predictions of escapism, shyness, and knowledge acquisition, and posturing; the later has much stronger themes of self-actualization, confidence, particularity, and stubborn risktaking.

Like a horoscope, this could also just be me seeing what I want to see however. These things offer only lensed views of ourselves

I’d be curious to see a tool that could compute trends over time as a reminder of how we change

It mostly feels like one of those things you read in horoscopes where it feels right because those things just apply to almost everyone. Sometimes it gives conflicting results, told memy primary theme is energetic but in my secondary theme it said I'm out of energy. That being said "You might be an introvert who still loves to have conversations" that is one of the base characteristics of my personality. So hats of to you

Just did this based on my Reddit profile. Few observations:

a) Fairly accurate. A lot of it sounds like Horoscope-type language but it was overall fun. I'd still recommend it just for the fun aspect.

b) Eerily accurate description of what I'd like to buy. Some things are easy to deduce for a person stalking my reddit but this one actually stumped me even!

c) Some results seemed like just spitballing for me:

- "You have probably debated smashing your phone or at least deleting your social media profile.": Strong no for first one. Sort of yes for second one. First one is an extreme detachment and digital detox, second one is but I'm fairly sure this is true for majority of people between 18-50.

- "You could be happy in a semi-rural setting. You want to be able to afford to travel, and be able to live in a large city if that's where you want to be.". No for first one; true for the second part. Very generic.

- There were a few other observations which are not exactly accurate ("good listener" - I am fairly sure I am not a good listener; and few other traits that are quite personal to share that it could be true if we stretch the definition but weren't true on first look)

- All in all, great work. Kudos!

Update: I just checked this on the basis of another old Reddit account and HN and it was quite generic and far less accurate there. (not that I expect it to be very accurate in the first place but still)

Pretty funny. I gave it several reddit accounts I have used over the years and my HN account and it decided I would probably like to buy a Sodastream for most of them but for others it recommended I buy a melamine cleaning sponge.

I don't drink sodas at all. I'm a coffee and tea drinker (iced or hot). The accounts with the most posts ended up suggesting the sodastream whereas the accounts with the fewest posts preferred the sponge.

I was complimented by the analyses that were presented so I'm totally okay having this NLP model determine that I am a great guy overall and I'm willing to overlook the things that seemed out of place.

I had to make multiple tries to get it to do anything with a reddit account so it must have been really busy since it was definitely not even close to instant.

EDIT: I think the ground truth should be to have a real human check out post histories and score someone using their standards and then compare it to these results. In my results I saw overlap between accounts along several themes and that to me served as an ego stroker. Hopefully in real life people see the same characteristics as were highlighted by this NLP.

I was recommended a sodastream too, but I already have one...

I love sparkling water.

I fed my wife's reddit account to it and it suggested she would like a resin printer that cost a lot more than the geegaws it produced could sell for. LOL. I'm pretty sure that if she ever had wanted a resin printer I would already be working around it. When she decides to get something she gets it and never worries about the cost or the utility of it. She researches things and buys quality so she doesn't need to spend that money twice. And, if she thinks I could use something, she gets it without buying the junk version of the tool or item. The best wife ever.

Mine is pretty accurate but they were vague enough to be applicable for a lot of engineers in their 30s :p

"You might be in tech"

I wonder how they got that from my HN profile!

I'm curious, did it say anything negative about anyone? I feel like it's just throwing a bunch of stuff at me to stroke my ego, and none of it felt particularly spot on (although none of it was outright wrong either).

I'd be much more impressed if it worked out my character flaws, instead it just told me I like tech, building things, and the outdoors (heavily paraphrased).

PG, it says, has "developed a coping mechanism that allows you to survive the world. Your coping mechanism is to avoid the pain and trauma of the past. You keep your head down, your eyes averted, and you stay in your self-protective shell. You've learned to be a hermit, to be emotionally unavailable. You are very self-reliant and independent. You're not necessarily an introvert, but you may prefer your own company.

patio11, on the other hand, "would be happy living on a small pension and investment income. You want to avoid the social security trap, so you don't want to be employed after retirement. You want to stay in touch with the world, so you don't want to be isolated from society. You would probably like to spend time on hobbies. You could be happy in a semi-rural setting. You want to be able to afford to travel, and be able to live in a large city if that's where you want to be."

This was very horoscope-like, and I project pretty strong personalities here and on my reddit accounts, so it was able to pick up those as "primary" traits. It also left a laundry list of other traits. I would have been more impressed if it guessed less about me.

I love me some tech horoscopes. Fantastic job on this, I can't wait to share this with friends at a bar or similar. It's going to be really entertaining to compare, especially for people who have multiple accounts.

Seriously love projects like this.

Primary Theme: Ideation

You love to see your ideas come to life. What already exists is simply not good enough. You want to see YOUR idea out there. Maybe improve something that's already there. You think through your projects from start to finish, and motivated by the challenge of turning an idea into reality.

Actually pretty accurate, my blog [1] is more or less the embodiment of that idea. My own ideas, made it myself instead of WordPress or Shopify (which would've been much easier).

[1]: https://langsoul.com

Oh no, I gave it a couple of my throwaway accounts, and there was a good amount of overlap in the results. Either it gives everyone similar answers, or my throwaways can be easily linked to each other.

Not to mention, you just used that website to link them in some db somewhere.

Hopefully accessing the website from different networks was enough to avoid that, but yeah, maybe.

Considering there's no authentication involved, they could theoretically link all of our names to them.

Yea, create some disinformation - but more likely than not, if the AI is any good, the author should be able to differentiate fakes from real connections.

Unless you take extreme precautions, throwaway accounts would be relatively easy to link, by those who run this site. Whether they care, or take the time to do so, is another question. Either way, it can't guarantee anonymity from the most sophisticated actors, it's just a way to keep differing opinions from turning into sustained grudges and personal feuds.

I'm fine with admins being able to link accounts; I'm sure that's very useful for spam prevention. But ideally, I don't want members of the public to be able to link accounts. Maybe you're right; maybe it is hopeless against the most sophisticated actors.

>You work with tech or maybe have considered it. You probably have a knack for coding, and might love to work for a tech company if you already don't

All that from my HN username? Spooky!!!

Not sure what's going on, but for me this is insanely accurate. Is it some weird trick going on like the sentences are so generic everyone can see some truth to them or what?

Seems very generic to me. “You’re the first to take on the job”, “you want to see your ideas become reality”, all that kind of stuff could apply to anyone.

I would be more impressed if they could have guessed my MBTI

That combined with peoples unconscious ability to disregard misses.

For example mine said I might own or want to own guns which is almost the complete and exact opposite of me.

However unless I'm being a smartarse like now I'll never mention or note or even remember the one that doesn't fit. You disregard the bits not about you (even though it's supposed to be all about you) and you share the bits that were spookily accurate.

Same way Markov string chat bots in the 2000s worked. Nobody remembered when it made zero sense, but when it seemed smart they'd fall over themselves giving it a projected personality.

Every name I've put in so far seems to want the exact same product despite wildly differing but strangely-similar-in-a-way personalities. How fascinating.

HN broke it. Not even an error message. Nothing happens when you click the button.

Do you have a local cache of the HN comment data? The response is too quick for calling the HN API + running through NLP model.

It gave my primary theme as "Stargazing."

Given that I mostly comment on astronomy posts I guess that really is right on the money.

That is just a clever ad. It probably doesn't even look at your comments.

Check out this AI "psychic". Much more interesting

https://beta.character.ai/chat?char=pIyOeG445ZYwPjw7qnPCpcEm...

I only submitted my HN. I was pretty impressed.

Accurate >You have lots of patience and can be patient with others. You have a lot of energy. >You have no time to relax or to explore yourself. You may be burned out. >You're tough, you're confident, you're in control. >You like to be around people who are hard working and dependable. You are curious and a good listener. You are easygoing and patient, and you prefer to deal with things rather than argue about them.

Not Accurate >You love to hunt and fish, camp out under the stars, and explore new places. You like to be outdoors, in nature, and you love to meet new people.I >Financial independence is important to you.

I like to believe this is true. >You are probably a very interesting person to talk to.

This is a horoscope with a text input box and a button.

That was my instant impression as well. Barnum effect all the way.

Do most horoscopes have targeted advertising hidden in them?

Honestly, it described me more accurately than I possibly could (based on a Reddit username)

This is so bad. Bad bad bad. Everything it says is generic crap that would apply to... a very large percentage of... humanity on internet forums!

It didn't even know, for sure, that I am in tech which would be bleedingly obvious to any human.

I was told I value financial independence, but doesn’t that apply to pretty much everyone? Seems like generic horoscope language overall. But definitely provocative and made me want to write a comment to complain, ironic. +1

Link to Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/y2xxf0

Wow this troubles me this stayed on the HN fp for three hours (and counting). It's clearly someone trying to profit off affiliate links using the oldest tricks in the book.

Probably just shows that the HN reputation model isn't too hard to game. I actually don't know what their defence against Sybil attacks looks like.

"You might already own or plan to buy something like this book about writing novels you can use to procrastinate on writing one" - You cut me deep, thank you.

"You may feel like we've lost our way. You're tired. You have no energy."

Ok that's true as of creation of my new HN account about a year ago. But when I ran it for my old account the top result had this sentence: "You have a lot of energy." Which was true back then.

Does this algo weight comment based on its age ? It seems like it should otherwise what would it conclude given personalities change somewhat based on on-going challenges.

> Does this algo weight comment based on its age ?

No but that's a fantastic suggestion. Thanks!

Hey, I thought it's fun. I'm surprised my top personality trait is so ambivalent, at least in the sense that horoscopes are usually pretty positive overall to my limited knowledge.

For fun I ran it on some of the interesting people I've noticed on this forum, there's not _too_ much variety in traits (or product suggestions for that matter), though obviously my sampling method is biased.

It's fun and I like that it sounds very organic but it is somewhat nonsensical as it finds me to be both energic and confident in the first two categories and further down below burned out and without energy. I'm also sad to admit that unlike the test suggests I'm not very agreeable or a rugged outdoorsman but chronically online and needlessly confrontational

> The internet is awesome. You work with tech or maybe have considered it. You probably have a knack for coding, and might love to work for a tech company if you already don't. You are patient and have a passion for the job you do.

I mean this is Hacker News after all (could be guessed just by having an HN username)

It did suggest a Sodastream which was pretty accurate, I already have one.

I also got a Sodastream suggestion which is weird because I don't recall mentioning anything about variety or a desire for soft drinks. I did comment on that notorious Peter Arnell Pepsi pitch deck but that's all that comes to mind.

Maybe it's a placeholder. I have also the sodastream. Maybe it's a play to me people talk about it?

> primary theme: You love to see your ideas come to life. What already exists is simply not good enough.

> secondary theme: … You are the dreamer, the idealist, the rebel, the romantic, the free thinker. The hippie and the punk rocker, the grunge fan, the pop fan, the emo, the indie, the hipster.

So wrong it’s mildly offensive. The last concert I went to was Carrie Underwood.

Product suggestion was........a tactical vest [?] that was permanently out of stock on Amazon ???

How does this pair with a primary theme of defiance....

TIL forms of non-admissable legal evidence [polygraph, barking dogs] which are nevertheless considered useful to a judge. This tool sounds similar.....not useless, not definitive.

The primary theme was mostly accurate, but the secondary themes were a mix of accurate and completely inaccurate. The needs/desires and recommendation/you might own were completely off. The possible themes were somewhat applicable, but seem like they could be to most anyone.

The topmost results are not wrong but that's because they're horoscope-like vague guesswork. The "possible themes" are as wrong as they possibly can be.

Yeah, no. Save yourself the NLP model processing power and just use a random generator, the quality of results will be the same.

Hmm, was hoping for something more like a Big-5 or Meyers-Briggs analysis, not as rah-rah horoscopy.

My Hacker News one was pretty good right up until "outdoorsy" which I most certainly am not.

My Reddit one never seems to populate. I'm on mobile right now so it's hard to say if there's some console error. I'll check on PC later.

Reddit accounts are not working for me either.

There are no errors in the console - or responses either: this is crazily using a WebSocket connection to the server to fetch the results. And so sending off a Reddit request never returns a matching response.

If anyone is looking for better Reddit account analysis: https://redditmetis.com/ is a great site (not mine, I just think it's really well designed)

That one claims I like Nioh, which is a damn lie. Maybe it confuses like with white hot rage.

You know it's too horoscopic when the things it tells you are roughly 50% true.

It's nice to know that gallowboob would probably like a meat thermometer

:: Generated on my Hacker News handle ::

"You work with tech or maybe have considered it. You probably have a knack for coding."

While accurate, I don't think this took too much thought from the model, considering the site!

It appears there's some rule or other factor that prevents it from working with my name. I thought it might be length, but it does pg just fine. Perhaps because my name is entirely numeric?

It seems to cache names, when I entered mine clicking didn't do anything for the first 10 tries or so, then it was "Attempting to connect to server 1 of 8" for a while, then finally loaded. When I put my name in again it was near instant.

This is fake as hell and you should all be ashamed of yourselves for treating it with any sincerity. It's an ad placement for Amazon clicks. That's all. Flag and move on.

Time to buy a Sodastream, discontinued tactical vest, and/or resin printer and spend more time outdoors to validate the reading.

It kinda gets some things right while attributing the wrong motivation.

Neat project if it's just used for a bit of fun, but I could see it being horrifying if recruiters started to use it.

This could be a great tool for introverts who are borderline intimidated by behaviour questions in interviews. Even though this assessment is not accurate, I don't think it's complete BS either (at least based on my personality guess ). This is better than sitting through some Myers Briggs 30 minute exercise IMO, especially if you have a long commenting history on HN.

Then people would start gaming the system. Language would be extremely constrained, most likely always positive and upbeat, all that shit.

Kinda like LinkedIn these days.

Well, it's hard to game the system over the long term especially on a platform like HN, where not every positive comment is rewarded. If the model uses any temporal aspect, then gaming it is gonna be pretty hard.

Sure, if the profile says nice things about you. But imagine if it decided you were lazy and a slacker.

55/45-ish? Flipping a coin on a checklist might have done as well. I'm pleased with this outcome; apparently I'm not trivially quantified by my comments.

Well, it didn’t do too well, with me (“rugged outdoorsman”? Shirley, you jest).

But I’m an oddball. People misjudge me all the time. No reason to think an algorithm would do any better.

Love the recommended ad in the middle, asked me if I'd like to buy a resin printer xD

How do these recommendation models even work? Is it just using some open source analysis?

Seems like a great tool to link reddit usernames to IP-addresses. It reads like a standard horoscope.

Have to admit. I've been an idiot and fell for this data-gathering trap

What is the HN equivalent of Mercury in Retrograde?

This seems pretty close.

A scary tool this is. Btw, it recommended me a vertical mouse, because I’m properly hydrated and my comments reflect that. Stay hydrated, purgatorials!

Be sure to hydrate using a SodaStream^tm!

Well, stop.

Hehe "purgatorial"

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to try

I wonder what pourcentage of HN readers would fall in the purgatorial category.

Another one here. Explains why I can never seem to leave.

> You might already own or plan to buy something like this book about writing novels you can use to procrastinate on writing one

Well it called me right out.

I might own a hammock for use in place of a tent...that is oddly specific and correct as that is how I camp (when there are appropriate trees available).

I like one to estimate commenters' age. It seems like 80% of the internet is written by teenagers now (this includes HN comments).

My product recommendation was a tactical vest that was permanently out of stock on Amazon. Huh?

Primary theme was Defiant

At first I was offended by how accurate the SodaStream comment was, but hey... we all want to create our own bubbly drinks.

You're really pushing sodastream, huh?

This will enter history as the one of the lamest attempts to trick HN users in order to achieve undeserved fame. :)

How well your results align with the Big Five personality test (free and validated) then that would be interesting.

"You are not rude, and you do not tolerate rudeness"

Im literally 6x more rude on the internet than in real life ><

This is bullshit, I only drink tap water.

Here is my comment. For science! Good Luck! Awesome. Maybe. Why? Why Not? What did you learn?

All your base are belong to us!

I like this modern time fortune teller

Life of the party? Enjoy working in tech? Have a passion for my job?

Primary and both secondaries completely wrong.

What ad integration does this use? Thinking about selling some sodastreams through my own test.

Anyone else not seeing any results?

yep

Mine seems like part confidence scheme and part advertising. I don't even drink soda.

I don't have a lot of comments on hn but the result is still super accurate. FML.

The product placements with (I assume) Amazon affiliate links are hilarious.

Isn't this just the usual rainbow/barnham statement rubbish?

Seems like it for me.

I am really not that nice and always had bad luck with sodastreams :)

Imo personality tests are bullshit but this is a cool website

Do stackoverflow next!

seems awfully a lot like a horoscope, just general enough to fit anyone's situation.

edit: 13 matches (14 now) for the word horoscope in the thread, lol.

Thankfully wasn't all that accurate for me.

It's an ARG? For what campaign?

I do indeed own a soda stream. Though I wonder how many do or are close to doing so. Do confirmation biases shift how 'right' it is in total via small specific 'rights' while we overlook 'wrongs'? For example, I do not often fish. To echo mikercampbell.

And is my personality what I type on HN? Are the quite normal people I know really the closet sociopaths they appear to be via their LinkedIn babble?

Good for opposition research?

This is awesome!

ASs if I am looking at the mirror.

Great work!

Uncanny. Your AI nailed me.

Doesn't work for me

Big swing and a miss.

Do you have a git?

almost nailed me to the T, so impressive

This is fun!

I'm going to share my results in long form, with commentary in (). Reader be warned, I am being as bluntly honest about my opinions on these results and about myself in conjunction with them as should be allowable. So prepare some popcorn.

==========================

Primary Theme: Quiet Storm

-You are compassionate and have a soft spot for the underdog. (correct?)

-You are often the life of the party. (In discord maybe)

- You are a free spirit, and you like to be comfortable. (Yes)

- Love is in your heart and your soul. (Hmmm... that's a tricky one. Not a no, but yes wouldn't be 100% accurate either. It's more like I tolerate a lot of you, whilst many of you think you are the ones tolerating me.)

- You are a romantic at heart. (Yes, which sometimes gets me into trouble.)

- You are often confused about love. (see prior 2)

- You are often misunderstood. (See prior 3)

- You like to be liked and to feel appreciated. (Don't we all?)

- You are attracted to the arts and people who are creative. (I am somewhat of an artistic sort with my history playing 5 different instruments at proficient levels. But scratch out creative, and substitute intelligent; but good luck convincing me that a person is this trait without being questioned on belief sets. The problem with the creative part, is that we all can be creative; but I am not attracted towards anyone in particular who is creative. Even mentally disadvantaged people can be creative with fecal wall drawings. I know, because one of my brothers takes care of these sorts of folk.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Secondary Theme: Independent

You've earned what you have. (Whilst this might be a one size fits all for many, it is triply true for me. Not much has ever been given to me freely.)

You're the first to take on a job. (More like first to take on a job if no one else is doing it to my satisfaction. If anyone reading this is into that MBTI stuff; look up the result for INTJ-T.)

You're tough, you're confident, you're in control. (Can be, and sometimes am; but not entirely in control at all times. Sometimes life feels like a rollercoaster I didn't sign on for.)

And it's your life. (You'd think so, right?)

You want to be recognized for your uniqueness. (Seems like a once again one size fits all comment.)

You're a leader at home, your family, and at work. (Yeah, and no. It's really only when I am being confounded by incompetence that I start to lead people away from that incompetence.)

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Secondary Theme: Energy

You are a pioneer. (You might be right in some ways.)

You like to work on projects. (Yes.)

You want to do things that you know how to do, so you like to learn new things. (I taught myself basically everything I know about computers and many other things; and have led some others to new understanding on those subject matters because of it.)

You don't like to waste time and money. (Ironically, one wouldn't understand this to be true by observing me in a short term fashion. It would look like I am wasting lots of time, and possibly money. But EVERYTHING I do has a reason, whether anyone likes it or not, and everything I buy has a use that is beyond just wants; not just needs. But to the outside observers, it may seem otherwise due to their own inability to project their own selves and assumptions of me; onto me.)

You like to have fun. (Don't we all?)

You like to explore new things. (Take away new, and it's correct.)

You like to learn. (Yes, but I hate being taught. It's a tricky thing, since not all those who teach, should. But I do like to learn. So much so, that I have taught myself many subject matters both in school and out of school. If I was bored in school, I would flip ahead in the text book and start doing the work that was supposed to be saved for later. It annoyed some teachers, <who shouldn't be teaching> and others loved it.)

You like to do things you can be proud of. (Once again a one size fits all it seems to me).

You have lots of patience and can be patient with others. (See earlier statement about tolerating others. Also, I taught a practical mute how to say a word on the bus ride home, so he could insult some kid who was bullying him. So yeah, I have patience, but only for the people who deserve it.)

You have a lot of energy. (Eeeehhhhhh... once upon a time ago, maybe. Now? eeeehhhh... I dunno.)

--------------------

Edit: Comment too long, see part 2.

Comment too long: Here's part 2.

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Needs/Desires: Your Needs, Desires, and Values (beta) This feature isn't really tested yet. Let me know how it works in the subreddit.

- Acceptance (Sort of, but this is too simple a statement to fully convey the real situation. But as you said, it's in beta.)

- Good Mental Health (I will always prioritize my mental health over almost anything and sometimes anyone, else. But it doesn't mean I won't lend an ear to someone else who needs to vent, etc.)

- Achieving Happiness (No. Contentment. I prefer to be content. This is a big difference from being happy, because happiness is a drug produced by the mix of chemicals in our brain. I prefer to be content. But that has its own downsides, since contentment can lead to a weird sort of depression I never in my wildest dreams thought possible till I had to deal with it. I was too content, to the point where it depressed me.)

Going to add my own 2 here to help make this more accurate:

- Stability. This goes hand in hand with good mental health and contentment. I !NEED! my finances to be stable, or at least able to be projected and understood to some extent, so I can plan ahead like I prefer to. When things become chaotic in this regard, I can become very depressed very fast.

- Independence. I like to be around others to some degree, but I hate being dependent on others without good reason. Like, really damn good reason.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recommendation: You might own

You might already own or plan to buy something like the sodastream because you'd get to create a bunch of random drinks before you went back to just buying name brand soda

(Actually, no. I use their syrups sometimes to change the flavors of some teas and/or juice mixes I drink now and then; but I don't drink soda anymore. Even then, I mostly just bought them so I could have something useful to sweeten my drinks with, while also being able to keep/reuse the brown glass bottle for my other activities.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Possible Theme: The Bigger The Better

The internet is awesome. (Ehhhh... sorta. Too many people on it now, which means that the worst are dragging it down.)

You work with tech or maybe have considered it. (I own nearly 10k worth in tech.)

You probably have a knack for coding, and might love to work for a tech company if you already don't. (I don't code... not really. Not yet. But I do reverse engineer the code of some games that devs don't finish properly to make mods for my own use so that their game sucks less. Civilization is a good example of this becoming more and more required every iteration released. Seriously, if anyone who works in 2k is reading this, please for the love of all that is good; actually finish one of your games, please. Deity mode is not properly named.)

You are patient and have a passion for the job you do. (See prior comment)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit: As before, so too again, see part 3 to read to the end.

Comment still too long for part 2: Here's part 3.

Possible Theme: Expression

You put a lot of thought into what you say and how you say it. You use your words to make an impact on people. You give life to the words you speak. You are passionate about your personality and what it is you do. You care about what you put out into the world. You are intuitive, and you use it to find your way around this world or the one you create.

(I'm going to just leave this as it is.)

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Possible Theme: Ready for Anything

You're a rugged outdoorsman who's always ready for a challenge. You're ready for any kind of adventure. You love to hunt and fish, camp out under the stars, and explore new places. You like to be outdoors, in nature, and you love to meet new people. You can't wait to find out what's out there. You don't just play it safe. You're a risk-taker who loves adventure and a challenge.

(This one is both correct and incorrect. It's correct up to the point where it goes on about "you don't just play it safe." When I take personality tests like the Ipip-Neo, I tend to score up in the 90th percentile area for cautiousness. But... I'm also not the most cautious person in the world. I will take risks; but not until I have ascertained all the variables I can manage to. Which... means I'm not really taking a risk anymore. But as for the rest.. Yeah, it's accurate enough, but I also don't do any of that stuff right now. Used to as a kid and teen; but that was back when I had the ability to due to ease of access to these sorts of things. Now? It's complicated. For those who are interested though, look up Carla Emery's Guide to Country Living. 9th edition, 1st version. There are 2 versions of the 9th edition. My mother used to own a copy, and I found another for myself.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Possible Theme: Purgatorial

Your personality theme is purgatorial. It feels like we're in the in-between times. You wonder: What's next? What's the meaning of it all? You may feel like we've lost our way. You're tired. You have no energy. You're may be struggling to keep up with the demands of your work, your family, or maybe kids. You have no time to relax or to explore yourself. You may be burned out. You have a nagging feeling that something's wrong. You feel like you're not doing what you're meant to be doing.

(This one actually hits things on the head pretty accurately to some extent, even with the contradiction to earlier statements the NLP model made. Like energy for example. I do feel split between multiple potential outcomes. And yes, life does sometimes feel like it's actually just purgatory. Other times it feels a lot like Carl Jung's idea of synchronicity and I am just riding on the crest of the wave sometimes. As far as having to keep up with the demands of life, it's mostly other people I get to deal with. See the bit about tolerating others again. I have no kids, regretfully and thankfully. My family is both something I hold dear, but also prefer to keep at a distance. I go to work only because I have to. This may be true for many in some ways, but for me it really is the backdrop of my life. If I could somehow keep having the things I have, and be able to explore my ideas for inventions and creations without having to work for someone else; I would be. I have many of both floating around in my head, and some them just might actually work out to help humanity in many ways. But those same ideas would require that I have someone willing to fund me without any expectation of a return, as these could all fail. I could be completely wrong. But if I am right, then many things we struggle with today would become things of the past. And so I feel as if I am not doing what I am meant to be doing.)

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Possible Theme: Escapism

Your personality theme is escapism. This world's boring! Let's take a test drive through another, more interesting, one. These places you go through books or games have a way of making you feel special and happy. These are the most interesting places you've ever been, and the world you live in is not like any other you've ever been to.

(Pretty much.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay folks. That's it. I could probably add more, and probably should say more; but this is getting long enough. I figured I would do this write up since it might help the creator of this, make their creation more accurate perhaps.

Feel free to comment in your reply, but remember the whole common decency thing. I have a lot of patience for those who deserve it, but only them.

Primary Theme Energy

You are a pioneer. You like to work on projects. You want to do things that you know how to do, so you like to learn new things. You don't like to waste time and money. You like to have fun. You like to explore new things. You like to learn. You like to do things you can be proud of. You have lots of patience and can be patient with others. You have a lot of energy. - 8/10

Secondary Theme Ideation

Secondary Theme Ready for Anything

Needs/Desires Your Needs, Desires, and Values (beta)

Acceptance Good Mental Health Achieving Happiness This feature isn't really tested yet. Let me know how it works in the subreddit. Recommendation You might own

You might already own or plan to buy something like the sodastream because you'd get to create a bunch of random drinks before you went back to just buying name brand soda - LOL, no, nicer try.

Possible Theme Ability

You are someone who is determined, strong and proud. You are not rude, and you do not tolerate rudeness. You are confident and are aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. You are proud of your accomplishments and achievements. You believe that your opinions are valid, and you are comfortable with who you are and what you believe in. You are confident, but not cocky. - 6/10

Possible Theme The Bigger The Better

The internet is awesome. You work with tech or maybe have considered it. You probably have a knack for coding, and might love to work for a tech company if you already don't. You are patient and have a passion for the job you do. - 8/10

Possible Theme Independent

You've earned what you have. You're the first to take on a job. You're tough, you're confident, you're in control. And it's your life. You want to be recognized for your uniqueness. You're a leader at home, your family, and at work. - 5/10

Possible Theme Expression

Possible Theme Quiet Storm

You are compassionate and have a soft spot for the underdog. You are often the life of the party. You are a free spirit, and you like to be comfortable. Love is in your heart and your soul. You are a romantic at heart. You are often confused about love. You are often misunderstood. You like to be liked and to feel appreciated. You are attracted to the arts and people who are creative. - 2/10

I don't know, maybe needs some more testing and less sodastream profiteering.

Primary Theme Purgatorial

You have probably debated smashing your phone or at least deleting your social media profile. It’s not easy to shut out the world when you’re on a career trajectory, though. Maybe you'd rather read books, learn a new language, take a yoga class, or take up knitting. Maybe you need a little push in the right direction. A little help to get going, a little encouragement to grow. Needs/Desires Your Needs, Desires, and Values (beta)

Acceptance Health Good Mental Health This feature isn't really tested yet. Let me know how it works in the subreddit. Recommendation You might own

You might already own or plan to buy something like the sodastream because you'd get to create a bunch of random drinks before you went back to just buying name brand soda Possible Theme Stargazing

Your personality theme is stargazing. Your head is far above the clouds. It's in the stars. You see the world in the broadest of terms. You are not a person of narrow interests. You enjoy wide and varied conversation. You have a knack for bringing out the best in others, working with them and motivating them to achieve their highest potential. You can usually be found doing something unusual and creative. Possible Theme Expression

You say what you mean and you don't mince words. You have a quick wit and are often funny. You can be sarcastic and blunt, maybe with a quick temper. You are quick to make decisions and you are often decisive. You are a risk taker and are constantly looking for new challenges. You prefer to do things your way, and you are usually successful. You aren't easily controlled or manipulated. Possible Theme Craving

There's something you want right now, but for whatever reason you can't or shouldn't have it. It may be a response to something in your environment that's pulling on your subconscious, or just an old habit you're trying to kick. Whatever it is, there's a reason you can't have what you want. Possible Theme The Reluctant Leader

You are reserved, intellectual, and logical. You may appear shy and awkward at first, but they're actually very witty and have a great sense of humor. You are practical, practical, practical. You are detail-oriented and driven. You're a bit of a perfectionist, but you know when to give someone a break. You're very serious about your work. You can shine in the background, but you know when to stand up and be counted. You can be a little stubborn, especially if you believe you know what's best for everyone.

This isn't very good. It reads like an AI written horoscope. The themes aren't even cohesive one sentence to the next, for example, the below. It feels like unrelated sentences jammed together...

The background image is 26mb, I'd suggest looking into reducing it, even if it's for your own server's cost :)

You might have saved my butt by pointing that out early on in the torrent of people. Thanks.

Have to ask... do you log or otherwise save ip address and usernames and if so what are your future plans for this info.

My personality is not purgatorial. It's all about the tollhouses, baby.

An insult to human beings.

> You have a knack for bringing out the best in others

Hah, I have a knack for throwing out the best in others

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