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I hate AI side projects

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Re: I hate AI side projects

#61

Post by peacebeard »

socketcluster wrote: post #25

AI 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 ineff…

Makes me think of how fancy framework and library websites have gotten. Surely, if the website has sumptuous animations, the code must be good.

Re: I hate AI side projects

#62

Post by CuriouslyC »

vermilingua wrote: post #56
CuriouslyC wrote: post #48

If you're anti (AI) side projects, you're pro corporate feudalism.

Ah yes, because becoming totally reliant on a technology only made possible by weaponising the entire global economy looks nothing like corporate feudalism.

Local models exist. Decouple your dislike of the companies from the technology they're trying to leverage.

Re: I hate AI side projects

#63

Post by insin »

janice1999 wrote: post #39
simonw wrote: post #5

I think the main effect of the current influx of low effort AI side projects is that it's going to significantly increase the bar for what's worth showing people. Six months ago no-one would post a "Show HN" for a static personal website they had built for themselves - it wouldn't be novel or interesting enough to earn any attention. That bar just went through the ROOF. I expect it will take a few more months for the…

The problem is that the effort required to understand the quality of a project has also gone through the roof (and not just due to the number of them). Good looking READMEs and docs, large test suites, well constructed code - LLMs can generate credible versions that take time to digest and understand the limitations of. AI is fantastic at faking the outward signals of a good project and hyping it up. I've lost count…

LLM READMEs and websites immediately stick out an absolute mile.

Re: I hate AI side projects

#64

Post by dang »

Edit: for me the most practical insight to come out of these threads, so far, is that Show HNs for generated repos/sites/projects would be more interesting if submitters were required to share the prompts, and not just the generated output. For such projects, the prompts are the real source, while the GH repo or generated artifact is actually the object code, and if that's all that's shared, it's less interesting and there's less to discuss.

I think we're going to implement this unless we hear strong reasons not to. The idea has already come up a lot, so there's demand for it, and it seems clear why.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47077840

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47050590

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47077555

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47061571

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47058187

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47052452

--- original comment ---

Recent and related:

Is Show HN dead? No, but it's drowning - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47045804 - Feb 2026 (423 comments; subthread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47050421 is about what to do about it)

AI makes you boring - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47076966 - Feb 2026 (367 comments)

Re: I hate AI side projects

#65

Post by skeledrew »

perrygeo wrote: post #59
hu3 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- learning: easier - searching: better - photo edit/enhance/filter: easier and acessible - text summarization: better - quick scripts/tools: faster - brainstorming/iterating ideas: faster - generating list of names: faster - rephrasing text: better - researching topics: faster - stackoverflow: i'm finally free. won't be missed by me - coding: debatable but for me LLMs made possible projects that weren't before due to…

Doing things "faster" and "easier" is an interesting way to put it. It places all of the value on one's personal experience of using the AI, and completely ignores the quality of the thing produced. Which explains why most stuff produced by LLMs is throwaway garbage! It only reinforces the parent comment - there is virtually no emphasis on making things "better".

There won't even be a quality conversation if a thing isn't built in the first place, which is the tendency when the going is slow and hard. AI makes the highly improbable very probable.

Re: I hate AI side projects

#66

Post by nicoburns »

ojr wrote: post #38
getnormality wrote: post #13

Blog 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

Google Search has gotten better unless you think AI mode is a downgrade, the alternative of having a wikipedia article, reddit post or random website as the first result is not better technically maybe morally for you but not matter of factually. The average user does less manual filtering.

I definitely think the AI mode is a downgrade. It has me seriously considering abandoning Google for different search engine. With a reddit post or a Wikipedia article, it's much easier to assess the credibility of the content.

The AI mode does at least attempt to list it's sources, but it's extra hoops to jump through.

Re: I hate AI side projects

#67

Post by tombert »

dang wrote: post #64

Edit: for me the most practical insight to come out of these threads, so far, is that Show HNs for generated repos/sites/projects would be more interesting if submitters were required to share the prompts, and not just the generated output. For such projects, the prompts are the real source, while the GH repo or generated artifact is actually the object code, and if that's all that's shared, it's less interesting and…

It's not a terrible idea, but I'm not sure how that would work logistically.

When I use Codex to do vibe coding stuff, I don't usually have one big prompt, I usually have it do small things piecemeal and I iterate with it later. Maybe I'm using it wrong but it tends to be more "conversational" and I think that would be harder to share, especially considering I'll do things over dozens of sessions.

I suppose I could keep an archive of every session I've ever opened with Codex and share that, but thus far I haven't really done that.

Granted, I don't really share my stuff with "Show HN".

Re: I hate AI side projects

#68

Post by PacificSpecific »

tombert wrote: post #67
dang wrote: post #64

Edit: for me the most practical insight to come out of these threads, so far, is that Show HNs for generated repos/sites/projects would be more interesting if submitters were required to share the prompts, and not just the generated output. For such projects, the prompts are the real source, while the GH repo or generated artifact is actually the object code, and if that's all that's shared, it's less interesting and…

It's not a terrible idea, but I'm not sure how that would work logistically. When I use Codex to do vibe coding stuff, I don't usually have one big prompt, I usually have it do small things piecemeal and I iterate with it later. Maybe I'm using it wrong but it tends to be more "conversational" and I think that would be harder to share, especially considering I'll do things over dozens of sessions. I suppose I could k…

That's how I do it too. I haven't checked (and can't right now as I'm not at work) but does codex not have a feature that lets you download your codex chat logs? I would certainly hope so...

Re: I hate AI side projects

#69

Post by selridge »

dang wrote: post #64

Edit: for me the most practical insight to come out of these threads, so far, is that Show HNs for generated repos/sites/projects would be more interesting if submitters were required to share the prompts, and not just the generated output. For such projects, the prompts are the real source, while the GH repo or generated artifact is actually the object code, and if that's all that's shared, it's less interesting and…

“Share the prompts”

How would that be feasible for a project of any complexity whatsoever?

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