TWiST #172 Chris Dixon of Hunch
Jason met up with Hunch founder Chris Dixon while in New York and the two dove deep into subjects like pre-cognition and behavioral influence, just some of the cool tech the Hunch team is working on.

0:00-0:30 Welcome everyone, to another episode of This Week in Startups.
0:30-2:00 Thank you to GoToMeeting for sponsoring the show and let’s look at their new HD Faces video conferencing service.
2:00-3:00 I’m here in NYC with Chris Dixon the co-founder of Hunch.
3:00-8:00 Thank you to Hiscox for sponsoring the show. Let’s check out how easy it is to get an insurance quote online at HiscoxUSA.com/SmallBiz.
8:00-9:00 On the program today is Chris Dixon, angel investor, blogger and entrepreneur.
9:00-10:15 What was the origin of Hunch and how has it evolved?
10:15-11:45 So what was the original goal of Hunch?
11:45-13:00 So what is machine learning as a subset of artificial intelligence?
13:00-15:00 What was the second idea?
15:00-17:00 Is the first product decision trees? What data sets are you analyzing?
17:00-19:00 After you have all that information, what do you do with it?
19:00-21:00 Is going through a ten-question survey more complicated for the user than a decision tree?
21:00-23:00 So is it like a Minority Report-style pre-cognition? When will you be able to predict when someone is going to murder someone?
23:00-25:30 Did you now decide to be an API and let the world decide how to use this?
25:30-26:30 Does Facebook have this technology yet?
26:30-27:45 Can you tell me who I would like or who I should date?
27:45-29:30 You could build a whole Y Combinator class out of all of these verticals.
29:30-30:00 How many people are at Hunch?
30:00-31:00 Why not sell the company?
31:00-32:15 What was the mission of Site Advisor?
32:15-33:30 You actually managed to change people’s behavior on the Web.
33:30-34:15 How did you have that idea to have a virtual set of boxes that tests bad behavior?
34:15-36:00 Are Twitter and Facebook your virtual machines at Hunch?
36:00-37:00 Can ethical people win on the Web or do you have to be willing to break the rules?
37:00-38:00 What about social networks? Would you have done what Zuckerberg is doing with facial recognition technology?
38:00-40:00 On a philosophical basis, is it old fashioned to let the users make the decisions?
40:00-42:00 So the stuff Dave Winer was preaching three, four years ago, you agree with?
42:00-43:30 What is the system paralleled and you could maintain the same identities and cross-post?
43:30-44:00 What if you pulled in all the messaging from Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc?
44:00-45:00 Is that the only way to kill Twitter or Facebook?
45:00-46:00 Are you actively angel investing today? What do you look for as an investor?
46:00-47:00 So you found a promising entrepreneur who built something that captured attention?
47:00-48:15 People like Ze Frank have a true gift that is in some way innate.
48:15-50:00 Are 3D printers going to work?
50:00-51:30 Thanks for coming on the program, Chris. Everybody check out cdixon.org. Email api@hunch.com if you’re a developer looking to change the world.

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