Ang Peregrino Recommends 59: Hunch

Hunch
URL: http://​www​.hunch​.com/

Hunch is a decision-making tool that’s cus­tomized for you. After ask­ing you 10 ques­tions or less, Hunch will pro­vide a con­crete result for deci­sions of every kind. Because Hunch is pow­ered by user input, it gets smarter each time some­one con­tributes to it. Cool huh?

Hunch gets smarter in two ways. First, since Hunch is pow­ered by col­lec­tive user knowl­edge, deci­sion top­ics mature over time. Newly sub­mit­ted top­ics often won’t be very smart at first, but as more and more peo­ple train and refine them, the top­ics will get much smarter. Sec­ond, Hunch’s deci­sion out­comes will become increas­ingly cus­tomized for you the more Hunch gets to know you. How does that hap­pen? By your try­ing many top­ics and also answer­ing the ‘Teach Hunch About You’ ques­tions which appear on the top right of the homepage.

Look. Decision-making is dif­fi­cult, and deci­sions have to be made con­stantly. What should I be for Hal­loween? Do I need a Porsche? Does my hip­ster facial hair make me look stu­pid? Is Phoenix a good place to retire? Whom should I vote for? What toe ring should I buy?

It’s dark and lonely work. Coin-flipping, I Ching con­sul­ta­tion, clos­ing your eyes and jump­ing, post­pon­ing the inevitable, Rock-Paper-Scissors, and ask­ing your sis­ter are all time-honored means of com­ing to a deci­sion — and yet we think there’s room for one more: Hunch.

Hunch is a decision-making site, cus­tomized for you. Which means Hunch gets to know you, then asks you 10 ques­tions about a topic (usu­ally fewer!), and pro­vides a result — a Hunch, if you will. It gives you results it wouldn’t give other people.

The 10 ques­tions (or less) asked form a deci­sion tree– a series of ques­tions that clar­ify and nar­row down the deci­sion points and gives you an intel­li­gent “hunch” of the best answer to your ques­tion. It’s dis­cern­ment and decicion-making online. Of course, Hunch will not cap­ture every­thing and some of the ques­tions you have to take tongue-in-cheek; but it is the best online approx­i­ma­tion to a dis­cern­ment ses­sion I’ve found on the net.

Oh, and did I tell you that the peo­ple behind Hunch are the same guys behind Flickr?

For the cool con­cept of an online deci­sion tree, the cool soft­ware that goes with it, AngPere­grino Rec­om­mends Hunch this week.