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You guys need to build more stupid shit

25 points·by gnarbarian·8 maanden geleden·17 comments
You guys are way to serious around here. Building stupid pointless shit is fun and it will teach you a lot.

19 comments

WarOnPrivacy·8 maanden geleden
I once built an obit scraper to build a db of local recent decedents. It was just to ease some work I was doing for a probate attorney.

I eventually set it to compare against a church roster. It emailed the leadership on matches and they'd follow up to see if it was the same person.

Sometimes they got notified earlier than they would have otherwise. But there were a few matches every year that would have flown under the radar (snowbirds or less active). It allowed leaders to make assistance and support available to the family.
aeonfox·8 maanden geleden
Not stupid or pointless, just difficult (and kinda evil) to monetise. But perhaps that counts as stupid and pointless here?
WarOnPrivacy·8 maanden geleden
It wasn't too hard. Probate firms scan obits to look for their own clients. This made that task less tedious.
aeonfox·8 maanden geleden
'Difficult to monetise' is what I said. But maybe I'm wrong about that.
WarOnPrivacy·8 maanden geleden
> 'Difficult to monetise' is what I said.

Sorry for misunderstanding. I could definitely sell it to local probate attorneys. I haven't because my coding is too weak for any kind of finished product. And because the data source is obit scraping, which isn't the best base upon which to build.
pleasedontman·8 maanden geleden
Not that difficult to monetise, dead people are not known for calling the cops for burglary and funeral homes, estate lawyers etc would pay for leads.

Given the audience on hacker news it's not even the worst thing people here do for cash because it's only one or so victim at a time instead of hyperscale. Old school artisan crime.
aeonfox·8 maanden geleden
IIUC it's specifically for notifying the clergy, which would be a little sketchy to monetise. But the OP did say that probate firms already do this, so I'm guessing it's already a crowded market, which might make it difficult to monetise for other markets.
gnarbarian·8 maanden geleden
that's good.
gus_massa·8 maanden geleden
Have you seen https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew

It has a mix of big and tiny projects, you may like some of them.
BOOSTERHIDROGEN·8 maanden geleden
Because people are becoming more sensitive, everyone is scared of lawsuits.
gnarbarian·8 maanden geleden
it never stopped moot!
M95D·8 maanden geleden
As if there isn't enough stupid shit; need to add more...

How about some not-stupid-shit for a change?
pavelai·8 maanden geleden
Why is it like so? What would it teach you to?
bix6·8 maanden geleden
F you pay me
gnarbarian·8 maanden geleden
best I can do is a like.
fennec-posix·8 maanden geleden
I wish I had the time to build dumb shit
gnarbarian·8 maanden geleden
you should try working for the federal government and getting shutdown for a month.
[deleted]·8 maanden geleden
yuckyuck·8 maanden geleden