undefined | Better HN

0 pointsSlinkyOnStairs2mo ago0 comments

> I took on some thins that would normally take 5-10 people and many months.

Based on what, exactly?

It's very easy to claim some software would've taken you months to make, but this is ridiculous. Estimating project duration is well known to be impossible in this field. A few years ago you'd get laughed out the room for making such predictions.

> I’ve only got so much savings left to live on.

Respectfully, what are you doing here?

Yeah sure, the Apple dream. But supposing AI did in fact make you this legendary 100x developer, so it would to everyone else including those with significantly more resources. You'd still be run out of the market by those with bigger budgets or more marketing, and end up penniless all the same.

I would strongly recommend you not put all your proverbial eggs in this basket.

0 comments

4 comments · 1 top-level

thejazzman2mo ago· 3 in thread

I’ve pivoted to writing native iOS, macOS, windows, Linux apps. Most of my career has been front end web. It would take me awhile just to learn and practice, vs having my visions working in hours or days

I’m not ready to unveil the thing I alluded to, it’s important to me that it’s good and polished. But I’ve done quite well so far developing in Swift, Rust, Go, and coming up with marketing and design — things I definitely couldn’t do by hand without a lot more time and effort.

https://poolometer.com/ Is one of the things I’m almost ready to call ready. So much domain expertise or tedious math involved — I simply wouldn’t have bothered on my own, pre-AI

I agree it’s a huge existential risk that everyone is also amazing. So far that’s not true. I get hung up on a lot of little quirks, like getting Dolby Vision to play properly on Apple Silicon without Vulcan. Something I accomplished after about 2 weeks of relentless determination.

To be clear I’m just trying to answer your questions honestly. I understand the situation. It’s almost to my benefit the harder it is for non Software Engineers. But in our current reality, when I’m not launched yet, it’s more stress

SlinkyOnStairsOP2mo ago

> So much domain expertise or tedious math involved — I simply wouldn’t have bothered on my own, pre-AI

This is what I was alluding to. AI did not let you write software you couldn't otherwise make, or let you write it faster. You skipped doing the research because AI gave you plausible results, but without doing the research yourself you cannot be sure of it's accuracy.

That isn't faster software development, it's reckless software development, and nothing really stopped you from doing it before other than your own recognition that pulling numbers out of your ass is a bad idea.

> I agree it’s a huge existential risk that everyone is also amazing. So far that’s not true. I get hung up on a lot of little quirks, like getting Dolby Vision to play properly on Apple Silicon without Vulcan. Something I accomplished after about 2 weeks of relentless determination.

That would be "doing the research", and as you have observed, is the slow part then and now.

thejazzman2mo ago

I guess it’s my bad for trying to do more than I could otherwise do alone.

bethekind2mo ago

Poolometer looks cool! I will say your smiley face icons look a lil odd and ai generated, but otherwise I love the graph tracking and suggestions

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse