I Write Like(iwl.me)

21 pointsby DanielRibeirovor 15 Jahren26 comments

http://iwl.me/

18 comments

dchestvor 15 Jahren

Heh! I open sourced it: http://www.codingrobots.org/p/iwl/index (or https://github.com/dchest/iwl)

Shared traffic stats here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2745555

soultvor 15 Jahren

After submitting some of my longer HN comments, I think the tool is more accurate about what I write than how I write. My comment on the Russian space program (which included the name of their moon probe (Luna) many times) was similar to Joanne K. Rowling (Luna Lovegood), another comment about TCP specifics is apparently similar to Cory Doctorow's writing.

For statistical analysis of writing styles as opposed to content it would be better to ignore all subjects (like Luna, TCP, ...) and only concentrate on the remaining words that are independent of the discussed topic.

MaxGabrielvor 15 Jahren

I tried three different writing samples and got:

David Foster Wallace (excerpt from blog post) Edgar Allen Poe (introduction to peer-reviewed journal article) Jonathan Swift (concluding paragraph from ibid)

I also tried:

The first few paragraph's of Wallace's Infinite Jest (he writes like himself)

The first few paragraphs of The Raven (Poe writes like HP Lovecraft), then the whole of The Raven (now Shakespeare), and first three paragraphs of The Masque of the Red Death (now Anne Rice)

The first three paragraphs of Swift's A Modest Proposal (Daniel Defoe).

I don't know much about literature--maybe e.g. Defoe's writing is similar to Swift's--but without seeing the reasons why I write like a particular author, I take these results with a grain of salt.

Jemvor 15 Jahren

"I write like J. D. Salinger"

I don't think I've ever read The Catcher in the Rye, or in fact any of his other books, so I don't know if this is 'good' or 'bad'. It'd be interesting if there was some sort of measure of public opinion on an author to see how I rate (that's my ego talking) and also a comparison in % to how many other people got Salinger.

Kylekramervor 15 Jahren

Just for fun, I put in the last paragraphs of The Sun Also Rises and got Douglas Adams.

latchvor 15 Jahren

I got Cory Doctorow as well (from the intro to The Little MongoDB book and a few other posts). We were both school by more or less the same system (Ontario) more or less in the same timeframe (8 year difference).

xerbbvor 15 Jahren

Interesting. Apparently I write like Cory Doctorow.

It would be nice if there was some easy/integrated way of viewing a quick excerpt of text from the author so I can see for myself the similarities.

bobblesvor 15 Jahren

I got the same result but yeah.. doesn't really mean anything unless they tell you how they come to that conclusion

deadsyvor 15 Jahren

YACD

chaseideasvor 15 Jahren

19/20 posts I checked from my personal blog, I got Cory Doctorow.

For my professional copywriting and various web service blog posts I got overwhelmingly HP Lovecraft and Cory Doctorow.

michaeldhopkinsvor 15 Jahren

H.P. Lovecraft. I aim for Hemingway but that's close so I'm happy.

ioquatixvor 15 Jahren

Apparently I write source code like Arthur C. Clarke.

nhebbvor 15 Jahren

I did the same thing. Apparently my code reads like an Edgar Allen Poe work. Maybe I should get a Vincent Price impersonator to do the voice over for my next demo.

edw519vor 15 Jahren

OK, I'll bite. I was hoping to learn a little something about myself, but I'm not sure I did. My results:

Blog Entry #1 (advice) - Arthur Clarke

Blog Entry #2 (humor) - Cory Doctorow

Blog Entry #3 (advice) - Stephen King

Blog Entry #4 (autobiographical) - David Foster Wallace

Blog Entry #5 (story) - Kurt Vonnegut

Blog Entry #6 (technical explanation) - Chuck Palahniuk

Blog Entry #7 (technical explanation) - Cory Doctorow

Standup Comedy Bit #1 (parody) - James Joyce

Standup Comedy Bit #2 (satire) - William Shakespeare

Standup Comedy Bit #3 (observational) - James Joyce

Standup Comedy Bit #4 (rant) - William Gibson

Standup Comedy Bit #5 (observational) - Stephen King

Poetry #1 - Chuck Palahniuk

Poetry #2 - Cory Doctorow

RyanMcGrealvor 15 Jahren

I ran my most recent 80 articles through iwl. Here are the results I got, grouped by author:

    David Foster Wallace: 22
    H.P. Lovecraft: 18
    Cory Doctorow: 8
    Edgar Allen Poe: 6
    Margaret Mitchell: 5
    Margaret Atwood: 3
    Dan Brown: 3
    Arthur Clarke: 2
    James Joyce: 2
    Douglas Adams: 1
    Oscar Wilde: 1
    William Shakespeare: 1
    Stephen King: 1
    Chuck Palahniuk: 1
    Isaac Asimov: 1
    Bram Stoker: 1
    Mario Puzo: 1
    George Orwell: 1
    Rudyard Kipling: 1
    Jane Austin: 1

Half of my articles apparently read like David Foster Wallace or H.P. Lovecraft.

huskyrvor 15 Jahren

Sounds great, but on one blog post i got Dan Brown, and on the other James Joyce. Seems a bit flaky :)

Mzvor 15 Jahren

FWIW: I tried twice and got the same result both times. I'm jealous of the Lovecraft result someone else got. I keep getting someone I've never heard of. :-/

FreshCodevor 15 Jahren

Even better, I Read Like: http://iwl.me/read/

dchestvor 15 Jahren

Some one asked me if the time is limited when it records voice, or it detects when you finish reading. April Fools worked!

lhnzvor 15 Jahren

I got HP Lovecraft with this massive manifesto I wrote and never published a while back.

meroliphvor 15 Jahren

Got J.R.R. Tolkien, pleasantly surprised.

stralepvor 15 Jahren

I write like David Foster Wallace

Mzvor 15 Jahren

David Foster Wallace, whom I have never heard of.

(Looking him up: He died at age 46 and I am age 46...bad omen?)

dchestvor 15 Jahren

..., whom I have never heard of.

This was the most pleasant outcome I got from launching IWL: people wrote that they never heard of some of the authors, or that they heard but never read them, and then told me that they'll go read their works.

Mzvor 15 Jahren

I had a lengthy medical crisis, during which time I "didn't get out much" so to speak. I imagine that's a big part of why I hadn't heard of him. I also imagine my future will be richer. Perhaps at some point I will look into reading some of his stuff, though my plate is fairly full at the moment. :-)

tectonicvor 15 Jahren

Arthur Conan Doyle.