Comment by sillysaurusx
3 years ago
Ha, gruseom shows up for pg, which is dang’s old account. A worthy successor.
This is a fascinating way to find similar HN users who aren’t the same person. It’s a surprisingly great recommendation engine. “If you like pg, you might also like…”
Sure, the privacy concerns are valid, but the cat’s out of the boot. Might as well enjoy the benefits.
montrose is almost definitely pg. Someone who talks about ancient history, Occam’s razor, VCs and startups, uses the phrase “YC cos” (relatively uncommon), etc. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17112567
Nicely done. One of the best hacks I’ve seen in a long time.
> motrose is almost definitely pg. Someone who talks about ancient history, Occam’s razor, VCs and startups, uses the phrase “YC cos” (relatively uncommon), etc. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17112567
I had this hunch too. It's either pg or someone trying really hard to be pg.
I mean, this is HN -
> someone trying really hard to be pg
describes half the site.
> Someone who talks about ancient history, Occam’s razor, VCs and startups,
I think these are all common topics among HN readers and commenters.
Why would montrose be pg ? The correlation is not that high. Looks like a few people have picked up pg's mannerisms.
Yeah, that score is only slightly higher than the highest one it shows for my account (which is also bold) - and unless my alter ego has been disguised so well it even managed to hide from myself, I'm pretty sure that isn't me :)
The score for montrose vs pg is lower than the score for someone most similar to me, who is definitely not me.
I think, the similiarity has to be in the high .80's to suspect that it's the same individual.
There are factors that make me think it is more likely than not (just scrolled through the comment history, don't feel like linking everything) that he is pg.
- Is bolded on pg's page
- Mentions yoga
- Talks about Lisp often
- Talks about YC often
- Talks about kids
- Links to Paul Graham's website
- Says he uses vi
- Writes exactly like you would expect pg to write
I agree that this person is trying very very hard to sound like pg ! You could be right actually. Could still be a "wannabe" though.
I'm sophisticately sure they are not. They recommend a founder to ask users directly what they will pay for.
Is that what PG would say?
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> but the cat’s out of the boot
It's my first time hearing that variant. Usually its, "the cat's out of the bag" where I'm from.
Do you mean boot in the UK sense, what Americans would call the trunk of a car? Or do you mean a sturdy piece of footwear?
Obligatory xkcd https://xkcd.com/2390/
It’s a little writing trick I leaned from (I think) Orwell. Any time you’re about to use a common metaphor, try to tweak it. You’ll catch readers off guard, which piques their curiosity.
It’s a fun game, too. I wish I’d used “the cat’s out of the hat,” but I didn’t think of it till later.
What you are describing is also known as an eggcorn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn
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Yeah, it’s like shooting ducks in a barrel it works so well.
Easy to overuse then people just get annoyed though…kind of like commas, I suppose.
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I like mixing metaphors, in this case "the cat's out of the tube". ("the toothpaste's out of the bag" doesn't work as well though)
I love doing this too, it's fun to write.
There's a popular movie called "Puss in Boots". That's what I had to think of first.
It's a bit older than the movie or movies in general.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puss_in_Boots