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How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

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Re: How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

#211

Post by johnnyanmac »

palmotea wrote: post #205
johnnyanmac wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was inevitable when ads were no longer enough to sustain websites, I suppose. It is a shame how critical news may be paywalled out from the public, though. Tragic, but fitting.

> It was inevitable when ads were no longer enough to sustain websites, I suppose. It is a shame how critical news may be paywalled out from the public, though. Tragic, but fitting. Also when any public content started being gulped up by scrapers and resold as AI.

true, that defintiely accelerated things. But the paywalls were coming up a few years before AI really hit the scene.

Re: How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

#212

Post by johnnyanmac »

minimaxir wrote: post #121

It's funny because it's causing a tragedy of the commons where there are so many AI startups that YC is funding companies that compete with each other. Case in point, the the PearAI incident a year ago where a YC company forked and rebranded an open source repo from another YC company against its license: https://unfashionable.blog/p/yc/ HN thread on the apology: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41701265 Speaking…

>Speaking of which, apparently PearAI deleted their apology in the intervening year.

So, "sorry not sorry" and then back to the grind. Ethics be damned.

A real shame. I went though a mandatory software ethics class and my FOSS exposure made me think a lot of the concepts were simply common sense. Read and respect licenses, don't endanger client data, don't do illegal shit. College me would have no idea how many people really needed to take that course.

Re: How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

#213

Post by johnnyanmac »

bilekas wrote: post #196
claudiulodro wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "How paid subscriptions ate the spread of information" The "irony" here is that news organizations are moving to gate their content precisely because that's the only effective technique for preventing AI crawlers from ingesting it all ...

So we as the real people have to pay because the AI might consume it ? If you believe the AI isn't consuming those paywalled articles also, I have a bridge to sell you.

>If you believe the AI isn't consuming those paywalled articles also

it's 50/50. Given the NYT lawsuit, I don't think that's something they would do recklessly. I'm sure a subscription has more strict ToS than just browsing a publicly viewable webpage.

Re: How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

#214

Post by johnnyanmac »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #149
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that those people aren't here and have no interest. I would say that it is the issue of lack of knowledge if anything. Yes, there is an infinite amount of knowledge available on the internet regarding open source and that's honestly where I learnt about stuff but its overwhelming at first and required something to kickstart the whole process/ be a catalyst of sorts. Realizing using linux that privacy matters…

It's not knowledge, it's interest. You go looking because you care. But people don't even use desktops anymore. They could, but they don't, what's the point? I know devs who haven't even put together their own PCs in decades if they ever did at all. I don't know how you shift that, but getting people interested would be the first step. They need to have a reason to want to learn.

>They need to have a reason to want to learn.

Supposedly evveryone's mad over paywalls and enshittification and slop, but no one wants to take the time find geuine, curious content anymore.

As far as I'm concerned, the frog it cooked already. immediate dopamine trumps over the idea of ever owning anything in life.

Re: How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

#215

Post by johnnyanmac »

pessimizer wrote: post #175
pixl97 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I see far fewer discussions of open source as compared to AI. Because the big discussions of open source were decades ago now. If you add up all the discussions of open source in the past I'd assume they'd out number the AI discussions now. Also, there is very little novel to discuss about open source. Now novel and 'important' are different things, but novel is what tends to write articles and get eyeballs.

There's an enormous amount to discuss about "open source," and it's neglected enough that the bro generation of programmers doesn't even understand it, or the difference between it and Free software, and what those differences materially mean to developers and the public at large. The reason that HN is eaten up by LLMs is because it's eaten by any trendy topic that's in the mainstream news. HN used to be directed by…

>it's neglected enough that the bro generation of programmers doesn't even understand it, or the difference between it and Free software, and what those differences materially mean to developers and the public at large.

I concur, there's clearly been a generational shift away from the idea of making a cool thing and sharing it. Part of it is economic: even programmers can struggle with bills these days, and the last thing someone paycheck to paycheck (or laid off) can do it take time to volunteer their talents to FOSS.

And the lack of investment seems to be creeping up slowly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42849640

Re: How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

#216

Post by johnnyanmac »

pixl97 wrote: post #189
pessimizer wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an enormous amount to discuss about "open source," and it's neglected enough that the bro generation of programmers doesn't even understand it, or the difference between it and Free software, and what those differences materially mean to developers and the public at large. The reason that HN is eaten up by LLMs is because it's eaten by any trendy topic that's in the mainstream news. HN used to be directed by…

Even if pg where here to do so, it wouldn't happen the way you think it would. Open source got ate by AWS and closed behind paid for services. We had those discussions in the past, we lost, the market spoke. Moreso the internet evolved into something we don't like. In the early days it wasn't that hard to have an energetic conversation because you were having conversations with real people at their digression. Yes, t…

>maybe a rebirth of FOSS that targets our base instincts can arise.

doesn't soud like an environment worth rebirthing if we need to surrender to the very dark arts FOSS rejected. If something is free but still trying to stroke "base instinctincts", it's basically propoganda. When you're not winning dollars, you're winning mindshare.

I just wanted to make video games, man. And maybe help others make even better video games. I'm not trying to start a cult.

Re: How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

#217

Post by johnnyanmac »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #192
pixl97 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if pg where here to do so, it wouldn't happen the way you think it would. Open source got ate by AWS and closed behind paid for services. We had those discussions in the past, we lost, the market spoke. Moreso the internet evolved into something we don't like. In the early days it wasn't that hard to have an energetic conversation because you were having conversations with real people at their digression. Yes, t…

> Moreso the internet evolved into something we don't like. > If you can come to terms with that, maybe a rebirth of FOSS that targets our base instincts can arise. > The cyberpunk dystopia we were warned of is already here and the masses invited it with open arms. Mature conversations need to accept reality to move forward. I disagree with the implication in your comment that we are in uniquely lost times. I think F…

>I disagree with the implication in your comment that we are in uniquely lost times.

It's not unique, but it the situation is much more dire.

>I think FOSS was under much, much more threat in the Microsoft and proprietary software times than it is now.

I disagree. FOSS's appeal is exactly in how it's there for everyone. no proprietary software can change that. And we've seen over the decades that throwing billions at the problem doesn't make something billions of times better.

Today? You share info and your content might be scraped into submission. You get bombarded by spam and bad faith actors to a point where moderation is now a forefront of how to approach a release, and not just a little thing to do a few minutes a day. Finding a commuity to share your project with is harder than ever as everyone is trying to push their own (often paid) idea out with much more vigor. And of course, less peopel can even afford to contribute to begin with.

These aren't just "vibes". It's genuinely more difficult to navigate this space these days. Unless you submit to some centralized serviceto take care of that for you.

>Mature conversations need to accept reality to move forward.

Mature conversations also realize there is no "single" reality. But a variety of perspectives, viewpoints, and opinions. Sure, some people are genuinely better off abandoning FOSS and sustaiing themselves on selling software. That doesn't necessarily justify everyone abandoning FOSS, though.

Re: How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

#219

Post by johnnyanmac »

ludicrousdispla wrote: post #208
jacquesm wrote: post #106

I was at a meeting of a bunch of VCs a while ago (a couple of months). The principal partner of one of the larger funds said that they will now only consider investments that are AI related. Just to give you a data point, I'm not saying that that is a trend. But if that's a market representative you can't fault the supply side for adapting to it.

My view on this now is that a company whose product or service is based on 'AI' is openly admitting incompetence in what should be their core competence. Or put another way, their competency relies completely on people not associated with the company.

It's 2025, so that's not exactly a shameful thing to admit these days. Sadly.

Re: How the AI bubble ate Y Combinator

#220

Post by johnnyanmac »

whatever1 wrote: post #12

The one thing that LLMs are good at is prototyping super fast. For accelerators/incubators etc this is a game changer since more ideas can be realized and tested for market fit. Now if the market fit indeed exists then someone needs to rearchitect and rewrite the thing. But wasn’t it always the case? The POC always was a hacked together solution with no real viability to be used as the final product.

>The POC always was a hacked together solution with no real viability to be used as the final product.

well that's the different. It is the final product, now. In many cases, you're selling the prototype itself, becuse that's what investors like seeing. User engagement be damned.

And people still seem to doubt that we're in a massive bubble.

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