Geez. My brain is just not wired to have any passion for creating silly crap, even if it made me lots of money. Some of these ideas for web apps represent the watered-down domain that has been distilled on the iPhone. Look for a native iPhone client for this app soon.
Calling Hunch 'silly crap' is a bit harsh, especially if you haven't tried it out yet. Let us ignore the fact that they have 'MIT scientists with backgrounds in machine learning' on their team, and that they started working on it in 2007 and launched only today. I just signed up to check it out, and the results look promising even with the limited amount of data it has about me and everyone/everything else.
Crowdsourced machine learning isn't new, but because Hunch has enough weight behind it, it might eventually become much more useful than a lot of other 'silly crap' out there. A native iPhone client for Hunch would then be quite welcome.
Ok, I'll sign up when I have time, but I doubt this will change my mind. There's maybe a fine line between decision tools and banal self-indulgence, and my guess is this app will encourage the latter. The issue is that somebody has to ultimately take responsibility for a decision that's been made. What's the disclaimer for bad decisions? Can the site be sued? And when this happens, will the site be reprogrammed to ignore the subject it was sued over?
I assume the app will ultimately recommend that it not be used for anything but novelty purposes.
Additionally, why is it more reasonable for a MIT scientist to make a decision for you than for you to make your own? The issue I have with it has nothing to do with who worked on this app, or for how long.
It's not like you are contractually obligated to abide by the suggestion presented. Do you ever consult others when considering something? Purchases, etc. Isn't this site just a way of codifying the advice of many rather than a few of your friends?
I would not say that it is silly crap, just that I don't see any need for it in my life. I have realized that I am probably not going to be an early adopter unless it solves a specific problem in my life.
For example, I don't use Twitter right now. I don't have a need to write 140 character messages to the general public. But I have changed in that I now see that Twitter could improve some situations in my life. I could imagine using it to send text messages to all my friends to see if they wanted to grab lunch. I could also see myself getting it if a future boss or coworker used it extensively. So while I could not see much value in Twitter when I first heard of it, I see value in it now.
So I am just assuming that I either don't fully understand how I could use Hunch, or I don't really need it right now. That just means I am not going to be an early adopter of their service. I would not say that the service is total crap.
Even now I can see some situations where I could use expert systems to make decisions. I remember when my parents got a new car my dad took the cost of the car, the mpg for the car, and the amount that he drove, and used that to find out which car he expected to be the cheapest. I am sure he would be willing to input some numbers into a web page and use the site's recommendation instead of doing all the work himself, assuming he would be able to actually view the decision tree.
