Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

codemade.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 70 posts

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#11

Post by kristiandupont »

parpfish wrote: post #2

in the age of LLM-built side projects... what's the right venue for sharing these things with other people? i feel like the expectations for a "Show HN" project are too high for a passing around a silly little toy that I had the robot throw together. product hunt is for things that are actual products/businesses. so maybe you throw it in a targetted subreddit for a niche interest group? seems like there should be a m…

I shared this tool for remembering recurring tasks on LinkedIn: https://github.com/kristiandupont/balls-in-the-air and it got quite a bit of attention.

No login or signup is required so it's very easy to try out and quite fun to play with, which probably helped. I think the time people are willing to invest in something before getting some sort of reward is approaching sub-second territory.

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#12

Post by reenorap »

canada_dry wrote: post #9

This is what I've been doing for a couple years now: having AI help to code/test projects that I've had in my long TODO list but would never realistically started/completed. AI is now pretty capable of producing decent code if your specifications are decent. I still think that non-programmers are going to have a tough time with vibe coding. Nuances and nomenclature in the language you are targeting and programming de…

"Make the window show up on top, you can't click away from it. Also clear all the fields when you first show the window."

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#13

Post by Mashimo »

I strongly agree with op.

It's a massive accelerator for my dumb and small hobby projects. If they take to long I tend to give up and do something else.

Recently I designed and 3d printed a case for a raspberry pi, some encoders and buttons, a touchscreen, just to contol a 500 EUR audio effects paddel (eventide H9)

They official android app was over if the worst apps I ever used. They even blocked paste in the login screen...

Few people have this fx box, and even fewer would need my custom controller for it., build it for an audience of one. But thanks to llms it was not that big of a deal. It allowed me to concentrate on what was fun.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1461079634354639132/1...

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1461079634354639132/1...

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#14

Post by dirkk0 »

Mashimo wrote: post #13

I strongly agree with op. It's a massive accelerator for my dumb and small hobby projects. If they take to long I tend to give up and do something else. Recently I designed and 3d printed a case for a raspberry pi, some encoders and buttons, a touchscreen, just to contol a 500 EUR audio effects paddel (eventide H9) They official android app was over if the worst apps I ever used. They even blocked paste in the login…

very cool! Did the LLM just help you with the software, or also with the 3D print?

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#15

Post by tempaccount5050 »

reenorap wrote: post #12
canada_dry wrote: post #9

This is what I've been doing for a couple years now: having AI help to code/test projects that I've had in my long TODO list but would never realistically started/completed. AI is now pretty capable of producing decent code if your specifications are decent. I still think that non-programmers are going to have a tough time with vibe coding. Nuances and nomenclature in the language you are targeting and programming de…

"Make the window show up on top, you can't click away from it. Also clear all the fields when you first show the window."

"Ok, here's a static bar on the top of the page" as it disappears as you scroll. You can now no longer click anything else on the page. You said "can't click away" and it did show up on top. As a 30 year coder that never did any UI, this is this shit I run into constantly. I can create awesomely cool and fast back end stuff, and can create better UIs than I've ever been able to, but not knowing the nomenclature trips me up constantly.

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#16

Post by michaelteter »

I have more than a few side projects that began as late night discussions with an llm. A couple of those projects reached a level of completion where I use the products daily, and one project reached production (a game you can find referenced on my profile).

I have had similar experiences to the author, and I’ve found that just working with a single agent in Antigravity (on the Gemini Pro subscription) is adequate. The extra perceived speed and power of multiple agents and/or Claude Code really didn’t match the output.

With a single Gemini (or sometimes switching to Claude Opus which inexplicably Google provides a generous amount of for free via AG) gives me incremental results so fast that I spend most of my time thinking about what I want (answering unplanned product questions or deciding how to handle edge cases).

I’m fact, sometimes I just get exhausted with so much decision making. However, that’s what it takes to build something useful; we just aren’t accustomed to iterating so fast!

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#17

Post by realharo »

parpfish wrote: post #6
Retr0id wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, demand for silly little side projects is at an all-time low. I'm debating whether to share the one I'm working on at all. I made it for myself so maybe it should stay that way.

i really want to see the silly little side projects that everybody is making! not because i think i'll actually use any of them, but because they could inspire me to do something different in my silly little side projects the goal isn't "product release", it's elementary school "show and tell"

Usually online communities have dedicated days for such things. Like a "side project Sunday" or such, with one large thread.

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#18

Post by realharo »

vunderba wrote: post #7
parpfish wrote: post #2

in the age of LLM-built side projects... what's the right venue for sharing these things with other people? i feel like the expectations for a "Show HN" project are too high for a passing around a silly little toy that I had the robot throw together. product hunt is for things that are actual products/businesses. so maybe you throw it in a targetted subreddit for a niche interest group? seems like there should be a m…

There are places like r/sideprojects but as with all non-niche boards it can get crowded pretty fast. I’ve often thought about standing up a subreddit specifically for side projects but with the proviso of: - No sign up - No ads - No subscription/payments of any kind Open-source is welcome but optional.

I think the problem with such places is, they just become a dump for self-promotion by people who otherwise don't participate at all. The opposite of an actual community. That's why even reddit used to have a 10-to-1 rule of thumb about posts like that (which would be very easily gamed today).

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#19

Post by Mashimo »

dirkk0 wrote: post #14
Mashimo wrote: post #13

I strongly agree with op. It's a massive accelerator for my dumb and small hobby projects. If they take to long I tend to give up and do something else. Recently I designed and 3d printed a case for a raspberry pi, some encoders and buttons, a touchscreen, just to contol a 500 EUR audio effects paddel (eventide H9) They official android app was over if the worst apps I ever used. They even blocked paste in the login…

very cool! Did the LLM just help you with the software, or also with the 3D print?

Thanks. Llm did "only" the software part. A tiny bit with answering questions about encoders and dpio pins.

I recently for fun gave an llm an image of a dj mixer and record player, in order to recreate a 3d model. It somewhat worked, but it's very basic.

Re: Building for an audience of one: starting and finishing side projects with AI

#20

Post by echelon »

michaelteter wrote: post #16

I have more than a few side projects that began as late night discussions with an llm. A couple of those projects reached a level of completion where I use the products daily, and one project reached production (a game you can find referenced on my profile). I have had similar experiences to the author, and I’ve found that just working with a single agent in Antigravity (on the Gemini Pro subscription) is adequate. T…

Anyone who hasn't tried AI for coding absolutely should.

This is the future.

I don't think we'll ever manually write code again. It's just so much faster.

Post reply on HN