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We replaced Zendesk

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Re: We replaced Zendesk

#61

Post by VikingCoder »

dnautics wrote: post #49
VikingCoder wrote: post #35

At some point, some people will just publish open source single-shot LLM prompts that define a clean-room spec for every over-priced product. Why not make an open source alternative to the product? Because everyone's needs are just a little different, and collaborating takes maintenance. Forks are free, merges are expensive.

that's actually NOT what you want to do. You want to build out a clone for these SAAS product that don't have the features you don't need, eliminating footguns and accelerating the fast path to user success. Large companies may have difficulty embracing this strategy because software is a cost center, and not a revenue center, for them. The returns to efficiency gains are really hard to measure.

Yes, I want to build a clone for the SAAS product my company uses.

And if someone has gone to the bother to make a prompt that helps my LLM build one, and it either already doesn't have the features I don't need, or I can have my LLM start by trimming the features I don't need before it builds it...

Then I think you're saying the same thing I'm saying.

Re: We replaced Zendesk

#62

Post by VikingCoder »

ahknight wrote: post #39
VikingCoder wrote: post #35

At some point, some people will just publish open source single-shot LLM prompts that define a clean-room spec for every over-priced product. Why not make an open source alternative to the product? Because everyone's needs are just a little different, and collaborating takes maintenance. Forks are free, merges are expensive.

"Build an Oracle clone in Rust. Make no mistakes."

Huh, the LLM deleted itself.

I guess that is a valid solution to that prompt.

Re: We replaced Zendesk

#63

Post by abirch »

wnevets wrote: post #25
coderintherye wrote: post #14

Since their private equity buyout in 2022, Zendesk will absolutely attempt to get you to sign agregious terms. They will attempt to hoodwink you. They will pretend they never received your cancellations and charge you for another year of contract. Legal counsel should be leveraged when dealing with them to ensure you don't get screwed.

> Since their private equity buyout in 2022, Does anyone know of examples of where a private equity buyout has made things better for the consumer?

Not quite PE, but Berkshire Hathaway generally doesn't destroy businesses that it purchases.

Re: We replaced Zendesk

#64

Post by volkk »

ahknight wrote: post #30

86% AI generated text. Seriously, does nobody write anymore?

it's really sad. the internet is slowly dying (along with humans using their brains, it seems). On twitter, any time anything interesting is posted (which also is usually "enhanced" with AI) 80% of the responses are all very clearly just claude/gpt replies. what is the fucking point? whats the end game for these accounts?? i HATE that i have to sit there parsing through all of this cruft. Fuck this whole article could've been so much shorter, and more concise if a human just sat there, timeboxed themselves, and wrote!

Re: We replaced Zendesk

#65

Post by eloisant »

firefoxd wrote: post #48

From my understanding, they vibe coded a solution and for now it is working for them. I've worked with zendesk and several other platforms. I worked in customer service automation, so we had to deal with so many incompatibility with different platforms. This looks like a win for now, but the part we won't see is what happens at 72 hours. I'm all for sticking it to zendesk, but as I tell every single person who were t…

I know you had commercial arguments when working at Zendesk.

Still: when you code your own solution, you don't need to build an integration with every single platform you can think of. Just those you use.

And sometimes, especially now with AI, coding your own solution exactly tailored to your needs can be simpler than configuring a complex product designed to match as many use case as possible.

Re: We replaced Zendesk

#66

Post by sandeepkd »

It would be an interesting read if they publish how things are working after a month or so. The first 90% is always is interesting and quick stuff.

On a different note, what Zendesk did is pretty much regular play now, hopefully some serious competition will keep that in check.

Re: We replaced Zendesk

#67

Post by rirze »

gowld wrote: post #24
prima-facie wrote: post #19

> We pulled an ultrahackathon. The team who built this did not sleep much for two days. They worked through Wednesday night, through Thursday, through Thursday night, through Friday. They ate at their desks. They wrote the spec late Wednesday evening and they wrote the cutover commit on Friday afternoon, and in between they did the work that the time between those two moments required. Cool story but I would not want…

How much vacation and overtime pay did the team get for that effort?

Forget vacation and overtime pay, I'd expect equity at that point.

Re: We replaced Zendesk

#68

Post by runtime_terror »

prima-facie wrote: post #19

> We pulled an ultrahackathon. The team who built this did not sleep much for two days. They worked through Wednesday night, through Thursday, through Thursday night, through Friday. They ate at their desks. They wrote the spec late Wednesday evening and they wrote the cutover commit on Friday afternoon, and in between they did the work that the time between those two moments required. Cool story but I would not want…

Yeah that was a huge red flag. Classic power tripping CEO move to arbitrarily inject a deadline for a new project mid-sprint which then forces your team to work all-nighters and still have them deliver on all their sprint work.

If I worked there I'd be immediately looking for a new employer, I guarantee this isn't the first time they've done stuff like this over the years.

Re: We replaced Zendesk

#69

Post by AndrewKemendo »

mattmanser wrote: post #34
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #11

This is precisely the future of consumer software engineering (no I’m not saying anything here about building robots rockets medicine etc. at least for the next decade probably) This idea that software developer productivity being the goal for AI companies is just not it - every piece of code you put into an LLM is a you giving these giant companies your expertise People need to remember where the bulk of engineering…

It really isn't. No-one wants to maintain these things, they'll be back on an out-sourced provider within 5 years, if they survive that long.

Why maintain it?

Make a new one from scratch if needed.

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