

Show HN: I Made this Y Combinator T-Shirt (Words from PG's Essays) - HardyLeung
http://www.tagxedo.com/shop/y-combinator

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hugh3
I don't want to put words into anyone else's mouth here, but if anyone ever
made and wore a t-shirt containing a frequency count of the words in stuff I'd
written, then I'd find it kinda creepy and weird.

~~~
HardyLeung
You can always buy a mug instead...

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kylec
A few years ago I made a similar word cloud of his essays using Wordle:

<http://i.imgur.com/akCnD.png>

I've often thought it would make a good shirt or book cover.

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bhickey
That's really attractive. Did you automate the layout and color assignments?

(Mmm! Even the font makes me happy! 'something people want')

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kylec
That's all Wordle. I did tweak the settings so it would look good (not sure
why the defaults look so bad). The colors themselves don't mean anything, they
just make the resulting cloud look good.

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AndyKelley
If I could use one word to describe that design, it would be "tasteful."

~~~
HardyLeung
Thanks!

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leif
Sort of off topic, but I wonder if you can copyright or otherwise do something
legalish with specific word frequency distributions. It's not nearly enough
information to, say, reconstruct a corpus, but it's often sufficient
information to identify someone with precision (so I've heard, anyway).

~~~
HardyLeung
I studied these issues a lot (copyright, right of publicity, etc), and I think
this particular use is fine. You are right that sometimes it is easy to figure
out the text from the cloud, just like you can make out a famous photo from a
very small 10x10 thumbnail, or draw Mona Lisa in 50 polygons
[http://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-
evolut...](http://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-evolution-of-
mona-lisa/) or as a single tweet
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/quasimondo/3518306770/>

~~~
peterarmstrong
It may or may not be fine, but my guess is that calling your Zazzle shop
y-combinator is a bit much. Yes it's a generic term, but out of courtesy you
should probably rename it to something like pgfan or something that indicates
that you're not somehow "official"...

~~~
HardyLeung
This is actually the "Tagxedo" shop in Zazzle, and the category is called "Y
Combinator".

The link goes to <http://www.tagxedo.com/shop/y-combinator> so this is also
Tagxedo shop Y Combinator category. It's clearly stated that this is a
_tribute_. I don't think I used language that is misleading, but I'll triple
check.

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absconditus
Now HN only needs its own memes and its transformation to reddit 2 will be
complete.

~~~
carbocation
This is actually a remarkable promo for tagxedo that is merely using community
self interest as its entrée into our awareness.

~~~
absconditus
How is that a justification for making HN more jejune?

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carbocation
What part of my brief statement read like a justification?

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mdwrigh2
I always just wanted the ycombinator on a shirt, and spreadshirt looked easy
enough to use so I gave it a shot. Here's what turned out:
[http://wright.spreadshirt.com/men-s-heavyweight-t-
shirt-A757...](http://wright.spreadshirt.com/men-s-heavyweight-t-
shirt-A7571859/customize/color/2)

I'd highly recommend spreadshirt by the way. The site was incredibly easy to
use to create the shirt and storefront, and if the shirt quality is anything
like the American Apparel shirts I own, it should be very good quality shirts
as well.

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edw
Do I get Birkenstocks and a fresh pair of socks if I join this cult?

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earbitscom
I think it's awesome. Very cool.

~~~
HardyLeung
Thanks!

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ajju
I see most of "Make something people want" but none of "Relentlessly
Resourceful". If I were making a YC T-shirt _that's_ what I would put on it.

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invalidOrTaken
I've always wondered how this is actually done, algorithm-wise. Can someone
more knowledgeable give me a link, or at least a google search term?

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buildorfail
wow that is super cool. what did you use to make that?

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HardyLeung
I use Tagxedo to make this.

<http://www.tagxedo.com>

Perhaps I should rephrase:

I made Tagxedo so I can make this :D

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ivankirigin
Why not just make an actual essay into a t-shirt? The instapaper logo is a
merlin mann essay, for example.

Sorry to be blunt, but word clouds are just ε over meaningless.

~~~
HardyLeung
To each his own.

I see it as an art, and I wouldn't say art is meaningless. Perhaps you want to
check out <https://www.facebook.com/tagxedo> to see some more examples. It's
much more than a blob of tags arranged in some random order to "help"
navigation (that might be a bit cliche).

Some of my favorites:

[http://daily.tagxedo.com/may-20-linkedin-rockets-skyward-
in-...](http://daily.tagxedo.com/may-20-linkedin-rockets-skyward-in-initial-
pu)

[http://daily.tagxedo.com/may-16-space-shuttle-endeavour-
blas...](http://daily.tagxedo.com/may-16-space-shuttle-endeavour-blasts-off-
on)

[http://daily.tagxedo.com/march-23-faster-much-improved-
firef...](http://daily.tagxedo.com/march-23-faster-much-improved-
firefox-4-relea)

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revolvingcur
Where's "it turns out"?

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yumraj
No offense, and call me a cynic, but I don't think this would get you into YC.

~~~
HardyLeung
Not meant to.

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MenaMena123
I think its a great design coming from a designer myself, but I'm no lawyer
and I don't think you can be making money off someones logo or brand. I dont
think you need to be a lawyer to know that either.

Plain and simple, would you want to create a startup and someone make tshirts
and make money off your brand or logo?

~~~
HardyLeung
Like I said in the other comment, I did study this issue (to understand under
what condition I can offer Tagxedo to users and when I can sell Tagxedo
artworks).

Use of the logo design is fine. The use of the entire essay with distillation
of selected words is definitely fair use ( _very_ transformative). The word "Y
Combinator" is ... generic, but I'd buy that this is subject to debate (and
yes I did refer to pg's YC not the math term). OTOH I can argue that this is
really a _commentary_ of YC so ...

And I didn't do this out of profit motive. It is first and foremost a tribute.
Second, Tagxedo as an entrepreneurial venture is partially inspired by pg and
YC. Third, I spent several hours to process the text and come up with the best
design (much more than I usually do). Unless somehow boatloads of orders come
in, I don't see how I can break even time-wise (which I already knew before I
started).

I offer Tagxedo for free and many kids love it. Teachers told me that Tagxedo
opens their eyes, seeing words and languages not as boring, but fun and artsy.
If there is a any hint of profit motive it is to perhaps allow me to justify
continuing to offer Tagxedo to everyone for free.

That said, I _might_ take it down if I get a C&D from Paul Graham and
associates. I wouldn't mind if pg takes this and run with it (sans Zazzle),
adding to the famed gray and black T-shirts :D

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MenaMena123
Yea I understand where your coming from with the Tagxedo (which is really
cool, minus the copyright issues that could arise), but putting it on Zazzle
would be debatable. Not my debate.

Regardless, if its not made for profit, after one sale its profit. I mean its
really cool and I'm not one to care about all the legal crap, but someone does
at times.

As far as your break even it doesn't matter if its not your brand your working
on. I can spend months designing something a court wont care if its not mine
in the first place.

I wouldn't really worry about it.

I really think its cool, but I was just stating some matters.

~~~
HardyLeung
Appreciate. I agree that anytime I sell something I need to face the legal
ramification, no matter how small the profit (or the nature of the profit).
Any time a person uses someone else's property, even if it is fair use, there
is the chance that it'll get messy. In fact the US copyright law almost
answers the question of fair use by saying "it depends".

So I understood what you said and thanks for your feedback.

