So where are all the AI apps?

Post by ozozozd » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 5:46 AM UTC

robot-wrangler wrote: post #290

hombre_fatal wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, I got a solid five seconds with the chart until the paywall popped up.

> Heh, I got a solid five seconds with the chart until the paywall popped up. Relevant! If the maximalist interpretation of AI capabilities were close to real, and if people tend to point their new super powers at their biggest pain points.. wouldn't it be a big blow for all things advertising / attention economy? "Create a driver or wrapper app that skips all ads on Youtube/Spotify" or "Make a browser plugin that de…

Post by steve1977 » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 6:04 AM UTC

chickensong wrote: post #337

PaulHoule wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we traded managing files and registry entries on desktops for something that violates all the principles of the science-of-systems, the kind of thing Perrow warns about in his book Normal Accidents.

I think that's oversimplifying it a bit. Managing files and registry entries wasn't much of a problem, but supporting an ever-growing matrix of versions across multiple platforms that were released into the wild was an issue. Modern evergreen apps kind of fix this, but you're still dealing with other people's computers and environments. Operating a service reliably is of course filled with different problems, but at…

Post by snackerblues » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 6:29 AM UTC

skeeter2020 wrote: post #102

causal wrote: post #44

AI makes the first 90% of writing an app super easy and the last 10% way harder because you have all the subtle issues of a big codebase but none of the familiarity. Most people give up there.

I spent about a week doing an "experiment" greenfield app. I saw 4 types of issues: 0. It runs way too fast and far ahead. You need to slow it down, force planning only and explicitly present a multi-step (i.e. numbered plan) and say "we'll do #1 first, then do the rest in future steps". take-away: This is likely solved with experience and changing how I work - or maybe caring less? The problem is the model can produ…

Post by oblio » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 6:48 AM UTC

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #372

oblio wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you pay $1000 per month for that?

I have never come close to running into any limits using codex with my $20/momth ChatGPT subscription every day

Post by pjmlp » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 8:46 AM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #223

TeMPOraL wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is incredibly easy now to get an idea to the prototype stage Yup. And for most purposes, that's enough . An app does not have to be productized and shipped to general audience to be useful. In fact, if your goal is to solve some specific problem for yourself, your friends/family, community or your team, then the "last step" you mention - the one that "takes majority of time and effort" - is entirely unnecessary,…

In enterprise software there is an eternal discussion of "buy vs build" and most organizations go through a cycle of: -- we had a terrible time building something so now we're only going to buy things -- we had a terrible time buying something so now we're only going to build things -- repeat... Either way you can have a brilliant success and either way you fail abjectly, usually you succeed at most but not all of th…