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1901 points l2silver | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source

Maybe you've created your own AR program for wearables that shows the definition of a word when you highlight it IRL, or you've built a personal calendar app for your family to display on a monitor in the kitchen. Whatever it is, I'd love to hear it.
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patcon ◴[] No.35739099[source]
I co-organized a weekly hacknight meetup of 40-70 people.

I wrote a script to make Anki spaced repetition flash card decks with avatars and names pulled from the meetup API. I would use GitHub Actions to run the script a few hours before the event, then drop the importable deck into a Google Drive folder. I'd review the deck before the meetup, and then at the event, I'd not stress about names. I'd pretend to introduce myself to new people like I didn't already know their names, but I'd be able to make them feel very welcome when I remembered, or introduced them to others.

Why do this arguably creepy thing? Because I am really forgetful with names, and when I forget, I become reluctant to approach people, which comes across as less friendly than I prefer to be. But I believe using people's names is REALLY important to community organizing. When I know names, I am really great at using them a lot, helping others learn them, generously making introductions, and helping people to feel a sense of belonging.

It was the best community organizer hack I ever came up with, until meetup locked down their API and broke it...!

https://github.com/CivicTechTO/anki-meetup-memorizer

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samstave ◴[] No.35744763[source]
>>When I know names, I am really great at using them a lot

I once broke up with a girlfriend, PatCon, because, PatCon, she would use my name PatCon multiple times in a sentence, PatCon and after a while it was annoying enough to where I had to break up with her, PatCon.

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1. patcon ◴[] No.35903904[source]
bwahaha oh god, this sounds like it would be grating...!