This is some Andy Rooney whine-fest. Who cares? Don’t do it. Don’t read it. You don’t have to announce your displeasure to the world.
Where do you think you are, right now?
I hate AI side projects
21–30 of 129 posts
Re: I hate AI side projects
#22Posts like this really irk me. There were shitty side projects before AI (trust me, I made a couple), but those people knew how to code so somehow you were able to separate the noise and signal easily. Now, coding is no longer some crazy skill and anyone can make side projects. Just because you can't separate the noise from signal with that easy check doesn't mean these people can't get the joy of side projects. It's…
> Just because you can't separate the noise from signal with that easy check doesn't mean these people can't get the joy of side projects
I would love to meet these people that are getting joy out of seeing other peoples random fucking vibe coded apps that have zero rigor or skill applied to them lol.
Re: I hate AI side projects
#23Posts like this really irk me. There were shitty side projects before AI (trust me, I made a couple), but those people knew how to code so somehow you were able to separate the noise and signal easily. Now, coding is no longer some crazy skill and anyone can make side projects. Just because you can't separate the noise from signal with that easy check doesn't mean these people can't get the joy of side projects. It's…
> Just because you can't separate the noise from signal with that easy check doesn't mean these people can't get the joy of side projects I would love to meet these people that are getting joy out of seeing other peoples random fucking vibe coded apps that have zero rigor or skill applied to them lol.
I just gave you two Vibetunnel and Openclaw. If you think those are worthless, I don't know what else to tell you.
Re: I hate AI side projects
#24Blog posts by authors claiming AI has transformed them into godlike engines of productivity: 103728369129 Interviews by celebrities predicting AI will revolutionize the economy: 2837191001747 Software and online things I've used that seem to be better than they were before ChatGPT was introduced: 0
I feel like the things I've built have gotten better since ChatGPT, but I don't use LLMs, just iterating and realizing how naive/terrible my old code is. Maybe I should write a blog post on How I (Don't) Use LLMs for Coding.
Re: I hate AI side projects
#25AI exacerbates the slop it but it's an old trend.
It boils down to "form over substance" which has been an issue in this industry since as far as I can remember; it just got worse and worse; especially over the past decade.
Solid solutions are being overshadowed by AI slop alternatives which were assembled in a few months with no long term vision; the results look great superficially, but under the bonnet, it's inefficient, expensive, closed, lacks flexibility, experience degrades over time. All the essential stuff that people don't think about initially is what's missing.
It feels like the logical conclusion of peak attention economy; the media fully saturated with junk where junk beats quality due to the volume advantage.
Re: I hate AI side projects
#26This is exposing a problem that already existed, AI is just throwing gas on the fire. Most engineers, including the readership of this site, have terrible taste in software.
What I mean by that is: after reading through a brief description of a project, or a conceptual overview, they are no better than noise at predicting whether it will be worthwhile to try out, or rewarding to learn about, or have a discussion about, or start using day-to-day.
Things on the front page used to be high quality software, research papers, etc. And now it is entirely driven by marketing operations, and social circles. There is no differential amplification of quality.
I don't know what the solution is, but I imagine it involves some kind of weighted voting. That would be a step towards a complicated engagement algorithm, instead of the elegant and predictable exponential decay that HN is known for.
Re: I hate AI side projects
#27"The worst thing about AI is that EVERYONE can build now."
Come on. This site keeps promoting negative content.
It wasn't like I couldn't build before, it just makes it easier and a hell of a lot more fun now. I just did an AI side project and it was a blast. https://oj-hn.com
AI isn't going to take your job. People who know AI are.
Re: I hate AI side projects
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Just because you can't separate the noise from signal with that easy check doesn't mean these people can't get the joy of side projects I would love to meet these people that are getting joy out of seeing other peoples random fucking vibe coded apps that have zero rigor or skill applied to them lol.
I just gave you two Vibetunnel and Openclaw. If you think those are worthless, I don't know what else to tell you.
Yes both of those are beyond worthless and largely uninteresting.
That being said, THOSE projects at this point have enough "activity" around them to make them at least somewhat worthy of a post. Which none of the vibe code posts have going for them.
Re: I hate AI side projects
#29It’s funny because I hate these “I hate stuff” articles.
“I hate stuff” articles considered harmful.
Re: I hate AI side projects
#30Blog posts by authors claiming AI has transformed them into godlike engines of productivity: 103728369129 Interviews by celebrities predicting AI will revolutionize the economy: 2837191001747 Software and online things I've used that seem to be better than they were before ChatGPT was introduced: 0
I agree with you in general, but come on - learning is easier (unless you need to dive into highly specialized stuff), writing shorter chunks of code is faster, simple photo editing ("remove this and that from the background") doesn't need any skills now. Image generation isn't terribly too if you put some effort and don't stick with the same 3-4 drawing styles that all the cheapskate companies use.