Google: Running was invented in 1612 by Thomas Running
"where is spaghetti code grown?"
Google: Slovenia
Two months ago such a result was posted here
"How many web servers are there ?"
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24664280
Not sure what it gives but "how many web servers" gives 'four'. Did someone at Google fix the result individually?
Long-time player here. Strangely enough, the hardest part of these exercises is the uncomfortable brief moment of getting acquainted with (or being teleported to) a random board position.
I'd be motivated by the swear jar & reminders since I (would have) put it there intentionally. But I realize not everyone lives this way and busy life can be distracting.
You're very right it would depend much on the person AND the goal.
The main value I personally see here is the setup. I wouldn't have to set up reminders and tracking manually. I may even learn a new goal I hadn't considered if others share their goals. As long as it doesn't devolve into a perfectionism race to the burnout line.
I hope it results into more a tool for self improvement than yet another business preying on human flaws/needs.
"do something against your own interests because you can't be trusted"
I really like the idea behind beeminder, as it focuses on discipline/process more than the outcome, but it looks like I could accomplish this with a spreadsheet, reminders, and a 'swear jar' of cash I actually get to keep.
After some thought I agree with you that this is the wrong problem to solve.
I took a narrative detour I wanted to share:
Suppose we make the analogue of a scientific paper to a piece of mineral ore (in terms of their raw content, and without written symbols in them for the sake of the analogy) extracted from some mine or quarry. This ore is somehow useful to someone, even if its value is structural: the shingles on an academic roof or a heavyweight desk. What a summarizer attempts to do is use a generic refinement process that will grind up the ore and then separate the components of interest such as Iron, Uranium, or Gold.
Anyone thinking that all of metallurgy reduces to simply throwing the slab into a machine and have it spew out the precious metals will find, instead, more complexity than they bargained for, and have more questions on machines or methods to resolve. Gold, Iron, Uranium, all have different extraction process.
I believe this approach may give some insight in what problems to solve instead with AI: focus on those discoveries that have helped advance "metallurgy", those of discovering and understanding the structure of the mineral ore and contents (scientific papers) and their relation with current technologies at the time, not on the philosopher's stone of 'summarizing' process more akin to a hammer that makes everything seem like a nail.
Oh. You'd be right in that. But you're the one that brought up sexism in the first case! Perhaps it's prejudiced in itself to assume implicit evil from the choice of characters in a story? Not to mention it detracts from the central discussion, which may explain downvotes.
> Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents.
Your data is typically sold against your own interests. In this case, unusually, your data can bring some unexpected benefits due to litigation. Posting here in case it gives people ideas.