Shuffle loads pins from Pinterest boards and shuffles them around. It does not modify the original boards in any way. The main purpose of the app is to get re-inspired by older pins, and to get creative with visual associations.
Creativity
After reading Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative‑Thinking Techniques I’ve been trying to find ways to stimulate my brain and expose it to new ideas.
I think Pinterest is great, it’s like an ocean of ideas that goes with you anywhere you go. You can use a browser extension to Pin anything you see which greatly reduces friction. You end up with buckets of ideas.
However, this is where Pinterest falls flat. In order to find something you saved a while ago, you have to keep scrolling for a while. It also has no ability to randomize the board(s), hence this little app exists.
How it Works
Pick some boards and mix them together. Shuffle a few times, look for connections, come up with new ideas.
Tech
It’s written in Go with the Bootstrap Framework, Packery, and jQuery.
I don’t really think of myself as a web developer, but after dealing with systemd, OAuth2, and Let’s Encrypt, I feel I may be one. Overall, I really enjoyed working on this project, so much that the morning would turn to night in an instant.
API v5
For a while pinterest was migrating away from API v2 and this completely broke shuffle. In the early 2022 pinterest finally gave access to developers to the new API v5. After a lot of rework shuffle is functional again. pinshuffle.fly.dev.
Wisdom
“To inspire be inspired”.