Retrieved from the website of Raffi Corrigan, Entreprogrammer, without editing.
Dev Diary 06/13 – A New Project!
Hey everybody – I know it’s been a while since I updated my website. I picked up some contract work a couple months ago which didn’t leave me a lot of time to work on any of my personal projects. But those are wrapping up now so I thought I’d throw some time at some new ideas.
I’ve been thinking about serendipity lately – the idea of random events causing new discoveries or just good things in general. So for example, penicillin was discovered when Alexander Fleming noticed mould growing on a Petri dish somebody had left uncovered.
Here’s my thought, then: Is it possible to increase the chances of serendpity by increasing the randomness in someone’s life? If you do X actions out of the ordinary, and there’s a Y percent chance that an action will lead to something serendipitous, increasing X should increase the likelihood of Y, no?
So that’s what I’m working on. I’m building a database of random instructions: Turn Left, Say Yes, Find Something Yellow, etc. I’m going to plug these into an app that sends them to the user randomly as notifications. The user should then try to obey these instructions as soon as they get them, and hopefully that increases the chances that something good comes of them.
Obviously this is just fooling around, but it’s a simple enough task that I’m no too stressed out about it. Will keep everyone updated with how it goes.
Dev Diary 06/20 – Algorithms
Still plugging away at the program I talked about in my last post, which I’m now calling The Serendipity Machine. First problem I ran into was that the alpha build was sending me instructions at genuinely random intervals, which I found out when the damn thing woke me up at 2:17 AM. So I’m working on an algorithm to find times to send instructions when the user isn’t asleep or in the shower or anything like that.
That’s when the “entre(preneur)” part of my “entreprogrammer” brain took over and I realized there’s some good opportunities for data mining here. Not everybody wakes up or showers at the same time, so personalizing the algorithm not only makes things more convenient for the user but also gives me monetization options which are key for an IPO if this ends up going anywehre. Slot that into the PowerPoint deck
Dev Diary 06/22 – Branding
On the advice of a friend I’ve decided to brand this primarily as a “mindfulness” app. Selling it as a “serendipity machine” puts too much expecation on the results, but mindfulness as a fad is still going strong. Stopping to do an action just for the sake of doing it is meditative in its own way, and has its own rewards even if you don’t get the serendipity hit I was originally thinking of.
The algorithm is coming along. I’m adding a calibration questionnaire at the beginning to feed some data into it, so we should be ready for beta fairly soon.
Dev Diary 06/27 – Beta is almost ready
Almost ready to release the serendipity machine beta. Posting mostly to share a funny story: I was out for a walk today and got a notification to “Stop and look around.” Stopped, looked around…and spotted a dog turd I was about to step on. Lucky! Hopefully it keeps up that level of success during the beta.
Dev Diary 06/29 – Beta is live!
The Serendipity beta is live! Despite the mindfulness angle I’m still calling it Serendipity because it’s a nice name. Click here to download. Make sure to check the readme for installation instructions
Update 07/01 – Patch 1.0.1
Click here to download the latest patch.
- Fixed installation issues on iOS
- Minor bug fixes and interface tweaks
Update 07/08 – Patch 1.0.2
Click here to download the latest patch.
- Updated the calibration questionnaire based on feedback
- Minor bug fixes and interface tweaks
Dev Diary 07/13 – Beta Week 2 results
Serendipity has been running pretty smoothly so far. It’s a pretty simple program at its core so I didn’t have any total phone-breaking bugs, and not a lot of complaints on the backend.
On the front end it’s been…remarkably successful. Everything I’m hearing is anecdotal, but it’s been surprising how much good luck people have been having thans to the app. One friend got an instruction to “Go outside” during her lunch break, and ended up landing a date with a guy that lives in her neighbourhood. Another person got a notification to “Look up” and narrowly avoided getting hit by somebody running a red light. Me, I received a “Find something yellow” notification yesterday morning and found a cafe with a yellow sign and the best cinnamon buns I’ve ever had in my life. It’s gotta be ocnfirmation bias, but hey – maybe my prophetic genius has finally been discovered.
With the backend ticking along nicely I’m going to work on expanding the instruction dtabase. As per the “mindfulness” angle I’m thinking of adding in questions to get users thinking.
Update 07/15 – Patch 1.1.0
Click here to download the latest patch.
- Expanded the instructions database and updated the algorithm
- Minor interface tweaks
Dev Diary 07/16 – Merry Christmas, I guess
Looks like I got into some drunk coding last night, because I don’t remember pushing that last update at all. Good night, though. I was gonna push it sometime in the next couple days anyway, so enjoy the early present.
Update 07/21 – Patch 1.1.1
The latest update is now available on your system’s app store. Tap here to update.
- Expanded the instructions database and updated the algorithm
- Minor bug fixes
Update 07/23 – Patch 1.1.2
The latest update is now available on your system’s app store. Tap here to update.
- Added advertising on the homepage (sorry!)
Dev Diary 07/25 – Serendipity!
I didn’t think Serendipity would be such a runaway success – which I guess is appropriate. It’s broken 100k+ downloads across platforms without a penny spent on marketing and the reviews are glowing. The spree of incredible coincidences continues as well: Lost pets, unexpected windfalls, random new romantic connections…it’s eally something
Next step would be monetization, but I’m kinda stuck for ideas. Carved out some space for ads on the homepage, but that shouldn’t do much more than keep the server running. Like I said before, the database is valuable, but most of what it has is basic waking/sleeping/movement patterns, which stuff like FitBit has reams of already.
The really valuable thing, from where I’m sitting, is whatever code is making the algorithm so spot-on with its instructions. If that could be built into an even slightly-better-than-average prediction machine it would be worth millions in FinTech. Course, I really have no idea how that’s happening. I wish I could say I programmed ito n purpose, but as it stands it looks like I’m gonna have to do a deep dive into the code and try to figure out what makes it tick. Maybe it was just something I forgot I wrote, like how I apparently keep pushing updates without noticing (seriously don’t remember sending an update on the 21st).
Update 07/31 – Patch 1.1.2
The latest update is now available on your system’s app store. Tap here to update.
- Updated the instructions algorithm
- Tweaks to instructions in the existing database, plus some new ones
Dev Diary 08/01 – Serendipity…?
I’ve been trying not to say anything, but this is getting eerie. I’ve been going through the code line-by-line for the last week and I can’t find any explanation for how this thing is hitting such an insane success rate. It’s supposed to choose a random instruction at a time the user is most likely to be available…not tell my mom to check in on my dad right when hes having a heart attack (he’s okay, which is good but somehow even more creepy than the alternative).
On top of that, something other than me is updating it, because I know for a fact I had nothing to do with yesterday’s patch. There’s nobody else with admin access, so…
Just got a notification: “Go for a walk.” I…think I’m gonna pass.
Dev Diary 08/02 – ???
125k+ downloads and this thing defies all reasonable explanation. I just got pinged about an attempted mall shooting in the States that was foiled by somebody who got a Serendipity notification to step outside…and opened a door into the shooter’s face. I didn’t program that. The servers haven’t been hacked – and even if they had, who has that kind of superhuman predictive power?
I consider myself a skeptic, but this shit is literally supernatural. You know I still haven’t heard about a single negative coincidence from this app? Not even a stubbed toe. This app is objectively improving people’s lives and I have no idea how it did it.
The most “logical” explanation is that I’ve accidentally developed some sort of super-AI that I can’t see in the code. There’s an old thought experiment tht if you plugged enough information into a computer it could predict anything. Maybe I somehow found a way for the app to collect the bare minimum of information to do the same thing. Yeah, it’s crazy, but my other theories are divine power, witchcraft, and Cthulu. So super-AI is still the most plausible.
Whatever it is, can’t say I’m comfrotable with it.
Update 08/02 – Patch 1.1.3
The latest update is now available on your system’s app store. Tap here to update.
- Expanded the suggestions database and updated the algorithm
I DIDN’T DO THAT!!
THAT UPDATE WASNT ME!!! I WAS WRITING THE DEV DIARY!!! WTF?!?!
Dev Diary 08/03 –
It’s 4:30 AM. Coudln’t sleep. Decided to do somthing drastic. Unplugged the server.
That should’ve crashed the whole app across the board. Hadn’t allocated local storage in the program yet – it’s still online only. Should’ve completely killed it.
Got a notification ten minutes later:
“Everything will be okay.”
That was never in the instructions database. But I sure hope it’s accurate.
Harmon Moon 