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

An ode to houseplant programming (2025)

hannahilea.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 31 posts

Re: An ode to houseplant programming (2025)

#11

Post by IanCal »

pona-a wrote: post #7
slopinthebag wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this place has been depressing lately. The hope is that AI could be used to automate the parts of our lives that bring us no joy or growth and help us become fully actualised human beings, but instead it seems like it's just used as a tool to boost profits while making the world a worse place.

It's the denigration of any and all intellectual pursuits that gets me. It's the myopic lead the blind, in a race to empty their brain fastest before the singularity can rupture them into the mainframe heaven. Their irl counterparts at the university make me think it must be envy, the same as with AI art: they were never good programmers but have always envied the their prestige; and using this new wonderful machine,…

Or it’s just a useful tool that lets me build more stuff and focus on what I’m more interested in, and can use it to learn.

Re: An ode to houseplant programming (2025)

#12

Post by midnitewarrior »

userbinator wrote: post #3

Not sure we need another term for this, as "utilities" has been the accepted term for various one-off programs that do miscellaneous things, and of which power-users will tend to have a rather large collection of. However, the term reminded me of a memorable interaction I had many decades ago with an old woman who wanted to write a program in x86 Asm to manage various aspects of the plants in her garden. (She did suc…

"Utilities" is a generic term suggesting it is small, potentially reusable, purpose-limited, and used to simplify a task.

"Utilities" doesn't indicate the audience or the intended longevity of use of the tool like "houseplant" and "bouquet" do.

Both indicate they are built for personal use cases, suggesting potentially low reusability. The longevity of "houseplant" suggests it's intended for ongoing use, while "bouquet" suggests a limited use tool.

With work, either could be made reusable for others, but I think it's implied that the scope is an edge case or uncommon case that likely only applies to its creator or a very limited audience.

I see value in the terms, but these terms may themselves be houseplant terms, not sure if general adoption is useful to someone not building houseplant software, they are mostly hobbiest terms by definition.

Re: An ode to houseplant programming (2025)

#14

Post by [deleted] »

sriram_malhar wrote: post #6
slopinthebag wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this place has been depressing lately. The hope is that AI could be used to automate the parts of our lives that bring us no joy or growth and help us become fully actualised human beings, but instead it seems like it's just used as a tool to boost profits while making the world a worse place.

As someone said, "Machines were supposed to rid us of tedious work. Instead they write poetry and create art, and we fill captchas to prove to them that we are human"

[deleted]

Re: An ode to houseplant programming (2025)

#15

Post by Almondsetat »

userbinator wrote: post #3

Not sure we need another term for this, as "utilities" has been the accepted term for various one-off programs that do miscellaneous things, and of which power-users will tend to have a rather large collection of. However, the term reminded me of a memorable interaction I had many decades ago with an old woman who wanted to write a program in x86 Asm to manage various aspects of the plants in her garden. (She did suc…

userscripts

Re: An ode to houseplant programming (2025)

#16

Post by wonger_ »

userbinator wrote: post #3

Not sure we need another term for this, as "utilities" has been the accepted term for various one-off programs that do miscellaneous things, and of which power-users will tend to have a rather large collection of. However, the term reminded me of a memorable interaction I had many decades ago with an old woman who wanted to write a program in x86 Asm to manage various aspects of the plants in her garden. (She did suc…

Sometimes utilities can be production-grade, tho, so I don't think that captures the nonchalance the author was looking for.

"Home-cooked apps" is still my preferred phrase. Personal software and subsistence development are also good terms.

Re: An ode to houseplant programming (2025)

#17

Post by bombcar »

userbinator wrote: post #3

Not sure we need another term for this, as "utilities" has been the accepted term for various one-off programs that do miscellaneous things, and of which power-users will tend to have a rather large collection of. However, the term reminded me of a memorable interaction I had many decades ago with an old woman who wanted to write a program in x86 Asm to manage various aspects of the plants in her garden. (She did suc…

I was surprised when I actually dabbled in x86 ASM (in the guise of MASM which arguably is a higher-level language than direct ASM) with BIOS and DOS interrupts as functions - it's quite close to C and not at all difficult - just tedious.

A powerful editor/IDE makes it ... not the worst programming experience in the world.

And since it's "so detailed" it's pretty easy to understand and explain, unlike higher-level languages that "do everything for you".

Re: An ode to houseplant programming (2025)

#18

Post by 1stub »

IanCal wrote: post #11
pona-a wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the denigration of any and all intellectual pursuits that gets me. It's the myopic lead the blind, in a race to empty their brain fastest before the singularity can rupture them into the mainframe heaven. Their irl counterparts at the university make me think it must be envy, the same as with AI art: they were never good programmers but have always envied the their prestige; and using this new wonderful machine,…

Or it’s just a useful tool that lets me build more stuff and focus on what I’m more interested in, and can use it to learn.

AI becomes problematic when its exceeds the role of a tool.
Post reply on HN