Hacking the Good Hack

Hacking The Good HackAbhinav Neelam

An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27459940@N04/4844722386

Specificize what an idea is

• An idea is the identification of a problem (a problem is not just negative), and a solution that can be done. Even if you don’t have all the specifics in place

An idea can be a solution to a problem, a better alternative that nobody may even think exists.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87893616@N00/9300725074/

Specificize Even More

• What sort of ideas are we talking about?

• The really big ones – what if I could talk to people thousands of kilometres away? Of course, they may not *have* originated like that, we’ll get to that.

• Small ones – on the shell you find yourself writing the same 200 character command everyday 15 times. You come up with an alias to fix it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wespeck/4491299269

Size No Bar.Think WWW.Think Redbus.Think your favourite shell alias.

Preening Ideas

• Think big.

• Love your ideas. Defer judgment. (preening picture

Big up your ideas!Take to logical conclusion.Defer judgment.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wouterdb/405030052

Perspective

• Then scale down.

• Constraints – time, knowledge (what can reasonably be learnt in the given time, and what must be known?)

• Audience, impact – when in doubt, pick the more impactful option

http://www.flickr.com/photos/transcendent/2040938877/

PerspectiveScale down.Audience.Time.Knowledge.Novelty?

Stuck?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacqueline-w/56107224/

Stuck?

Programmatization, Automate the drudgery

• What is something you do everyday, or would like to given the chance. I check my mail everyday, I check my Facebook wall everyday. But I only spend 10 minutes on browsing – wouldn’t it make sense to improve my mail experience so that I can have the same fulfilling experience in 3 minutes? Well understood fact that people internally allocate a certain amount of time for doing a certain kind of activity. For example, if I have 10 mi

http://www.flickr.com/photos/techsavvyed/6961962471

Philosophy of programmingAutomate, save time.Fixed daily quotas?

Demo

• Simplifying access, it’s there if you want to get it, but you’d much prefer having it here, convenience – sports live score https://docs.google.com/a/yahoo-inc.com/file/d/0BxUg4spLJCm7VmlRSnZGZ1RoeGc/edit

Demo

• Movie Quiz

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/4027405769/

Demo: SportLiveCenterhttps://docs.google.com/a/yahoo-inc.com/file/d/0BxUg4spLJCm7VmlRSnZGZ1RoeGc/edit

Delight the User

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturnino/523874574

Engage.Delight.

Demo

• Movie Quiz

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/4027405769/

Demo: Answers<Play Video>

Tying things together

• Staple of hacking everywhere – mashups.

• There’s information at place A, there’s some more information at place B, wouldn’t it be super cool to have all that information in one place? Combing social media streams into one is a classic and illustrative example.

Tie things togetherThe art of mashing up.

Demo

• Social web – use messenger to discuss the page you’re on and viewing.

• https://docs.google.com/a/yahoo-inc.com/file/d/0B1FKd4APED1ka092UVVEcXRoQms/edit

Demo: Social Webhttps://docs.google.com/a/yahoo-inc.com/file/d/0B1FKd4APED1ka092UVVEcXRoQms/edit

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/4027405769/

Between the lines

• Seeing hidden connections, this is a harder problem. Giving information to people that’ll enliven their experience – perhaps this is not something they’re even actively seeking.

• This includes things like personalization, relevant content recommendations etc. Very sciency, very you. :p

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benobryan/3977139034

Make hidden connections.Related content, personalization, sentiment analysis.

Demo

• UGC comment sentiment blah.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/4027405769/

Demo: Community Signalshttps://docs.google.com/a/yahoo-inc.com/file/d/0B7zoZJDfY05JWFdHNjMtOGZLcjg/edit

TopicatrDemo

• UGC comment sentiment blah.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/4027405769/

Demo: Topicatr[iphone sim]

Different, but Related

• The categories before are not really categories – they’re different ways of going about the process of ideation or hacking methodically. They’re certainly not disjoint!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiertz/8545796000

Do your thing!Novelty.Differentiation.

Time

• There’s always that ticking clock, but you should challenge yourself.

• Do you think you can do what you want to do in 24 hours? It’s too easy – pick the idea that you think you can pull off in 48.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedromourapinheiro/2307665224/

TimeThe 48 hour challenge?

Use what’s out there!

• There are tons of libraries out there that would probably implement every algorithmic need you may have – don’t bother redoing it. Instead, focus on building the novelty that comprises your idea.

• We’ll have more sessions on these things.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmtucker/3355551036/

Building BlocksUse what’s out there.Tons of APIs, libraries.

Still stuck?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacqueline-w/56107224/

Still Stuck?

Brainstorming in a group!

• Bounce ideas off each other. Don’t be too critical, and don’t be too hasty to pick ideas.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34252364@N00/369497190

Group Brainstorming!Different perspectives.Complete your idea!

Workflows!

Recap

• Think big, don’t throw away easily.

• Programmer’s philosophy.

• Engage.

• Tie things together, even things that aren’t seen by everybody.

• Constraints – time, knowledge, audience

• No ideas? Brainstorm some more.

• Novelty, differentiate yourself.

• Reuse whatever you can.