The Implicit Attributes Problem. (noun) The fact that the vast majority of important truths about every human are not searchable by any existing form of technology, nor directly observable in person. As a result, most people who might be looking for someone exactly like you cannot find you, nor would you be able to find them. Becoming aware of this problem can lead one to question the utility of all existing social apps. --- - Add up all the information about you on every social media profile. - That's not even 1% of the valuable information about you. - The other 99% are what we call [[Implicit Attribute|Implicit Attributes]]. - Implicit attributes are the dark matter of human value. - These attributes are well over 99% of what makes us who we are, but they're locked up inside of us, in stories that we only tell long after we've met someone, or unimportant asides that we don't mention out of a belief that they're not relevant, interesting, or valuable to other people. - That is, implicit attributes are not _searchable_. - Suppose Person X has some attribute A that makes them interesting or valuable to Person Y. Whenever attribute A belongs to the over 99% of attributes about Person X that are implicit (i.e. not listed on any of X's public profiles, and not directly visible from observation), then Y will not be able to find X based on A. - In other words, people looking for you can't find you. - This is by far the most important unsolved problem at the intersection of technology and social life. - Side Effects of this Problem: - Every social search app from Tinder to LinkedIn is pathetically underpowered, due to the lack of [[Data of 2nd Party Value]] it has about its users. - These apps end up optimizing for surface level attributes. - This is what makes users of those platforms actively dislike those platforms. - Examples: - Nobody likes dating apps. The publicly traded dating apps are down 90% from their all time highs. - Nobody likes LinkedIn. It's full of ghost jobs, and it's provably the least efficient method of finding work of all commonly used methods. - We want to make the implicit attributes of people searchable. - We want to give users a way of providing information about themselves _without_ having to make that information public. - The information thus provided will be used to help others find them, based on attributes they either (1) do not want to advertise publicly, (2) are not unwilling to advertise publicly, but have no particular reason to do so due to a belief that it is not interesting, relevant, or valuable to anyone else. - The belief that one's implicit attributes are not valuable to others is the fundamental misunderstanding that needs to be overcome in order to solve the problem of social search. - Here are some examples of apparently valueless or value-negative implicit attributes that turn out to have significant positive value to specific others. - Examples: - Person A used to be addicted to heroin. - Person B is a psychology graduate student who gets criticized by her supervisor for not talking enough in lab meetings. - Person C has a minor speech impediment and he's never been good with girls. Despite a successful career and above average attractiveness, he's having trouble finding dates in his city. - Person D is over budget on a documentary she's making about the Sackler family's role in the opioid epidemic. - Person E sees a therapist every week, but he's thinking of stopping because paying someone to talk to him feels fake. He wants someone to listen to him without needing to be paid for it. - Person F is a poor girl in the Philippines who goes on OkCupid and lies about her location, setting it to Los Angeles in the hope of meeting a guy in the US. At first glance, these are all flaws. Not a single one of these people lists these things on their social media profiles as valuable things about themselves. And yet these people all solve each other's problems, not despite those flaws, but because of them. - The fact that Person A used to be addicted to heroin is valuable to Person D. Like many former addicts, Person A's addiction started after a prescription for clonopin, and this is exactly the type of person who Person D wants to interview for her movie. - Person B is a good listener but isn't always very talkative. This flaw of hers solves Person E's problem of just wanting someone who listens. The fact that she's studying to be a psychologist makes this valuable practice for her too. - Person C would be more than happy to date someone overseas if he met the right person. Person F is still learning English, so she doesn't even notice his lisp. No existing social search app lets any of these people find each other, except by accident. This is the problem we intend to solve.