scripper (u/scripper)

scripper commented on Ask HN: Do personal projects feel less fun with LLMs? · Posted by u/scripper

toomuchtodo · 7 months ago

I am a mediocre software person (because I was some combination of unable and unwilling to commit the time needed to become good at it earlier in due to life circumstances), but love to solve problems. I love LLMs because of this; while I can appreciate beautiful and elegant code I couldn’t write myself, I just want to solve problems.

My personal projects are the outcomes (solving problems), not the code. The code is just a sometimes necessary means to an end. If the robot solves my problems, tremendous! It means I can solve more problems that tickle my brain faster. This is why I desire a continuously improving robot: we solve problems together, mostly for fun and rarely for profit.

Pick puzzles that are most fun for you. If the puzzles are not fun, look for novel puzzles to explore.

scripper · 7 months ago

Thank you for replying. Totally makes sense that it helps people do a lot without having to spend a lot of time learning to code. Similar to Wix allowing you to have a cool website without years of learning web languages. I guess I enjoy coding at least partly to solve problems but I’m not sure what the next type of problem is for me. I don’t necessarily like juggling 20 things at once which is one new problem allowed by it being much easier to do things with code.

scripper commented on Ask HN: Do personal projects feel less fun with LLMs? · Posted by u/scripper

gibbitz · 7 months ago

Interesting observation. There was a thread here recently about LLMs and Art where the OP wh likewise felt unmotivated due to LLMs was accused of creating Art for egotistical reasons. I generally think of my personal projects like I think about Art. Sure the motivation is not 100% this, but it is at least 50% about a sense of accomplishment and bragging rights. LLMs destroy this motivation by making it possible for about anyone to do something. For those just looking for the results one looks stupid for learning it and doing it on their own and a social pressure exists to not do it without using an LLM. The whole thing causes me to vascilate between wanting to not use and fight LLMs and the associated pressure or to just watch TV. It's easy to say that this is transformative financially but I'm finding the motivational impact of these tools to be way out sized personally. As a developer and Artist this feels like the larger society telling me that my passions are worthless and by proxy so am I. Pretty demotivating...

scripper · 7 months ago

Thanks for replying. Yeah, right, technology is learning to do things that were previously done by humans, which devalues them and the labor that goes into them. A lot of techs did this but recent technologie are much more versatile.

scripper commented on The Rise of Whatever eev.ee/blog/2025/07/03/th... · Posted by u/cratermoon

KaiserPro · 8 months ago

Up until recently, I could, if I wanted to have a living doing VFX. I could, if I wanted to, craft new worlds, and get paid for it.

In two years, that won't be the case.

Its the same for virtually all other Arts based job. An economy that currently support say 100% of the people now, will at most be able to support 10-30% in a few years time.

> It's ridiculous to think drawing will become a lost art because of LLM/Diffusal

Map reading is pretty much a dead art now (as someone who leads hikes, I've seen it first hand)

Memorising books/oral history is also a long dead art.

Oral story telling is also a dead art, as is folk music, compared to its peak.

Sure _rich_ people will be able to do all the arts they want. Everyone else won't

scripper · 8 months ago

I agree. I am at mid-career. I know many people who dedicated years of their lives learning a craft and building a dignified, somewhat-creative career. I admire these people greatly. The rewards from putting in this effort have disappeared.

For example, I have no knowledge of film editing or what “works” in a sequence, but if I wanted to I could create something more than passable with AI.

scripper commented on I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business mtlynch.io/i-sold-tinypil... · Posted by u/mtlynch

mtlynch · 2 years ago

Thanks for reading!

>What do you think is next for you?

Next is either an educational product or a SaaS business I can build either fully solo or with 1-2 teammates in customer support roles.

>Would you do it all over?

No, not knowing what I know now about how difficult it is to succeed in hardware.

I'm grateful that TinyPilot worked, but there's definitely a reason why there are so few bootstrapped hardware companies.

In the first few years, there were so many things that could have clobbered the business, like supply shortages, manufacturing errors, lost shipments, design mistakes. I did a lot of things to mitigate these risks, but a lot of it just came down to being lucky enough to avoid random disasters.

For example, there were definitely times in the business where a critical part could have been lost in shipping, and we would have been dead in the water for months if it went missing or got delayed.

As the business matured, we were able to mitigate those risks better, but I wouldn't want to go through those first two years again unless I had a huge amount of investment or co-founders with more specialized hardware/manufacturing expertise.

scripper · 2 years ago

Great to know, thanks so much for the info!

scripper commented on I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business mtlynch.io/i-sold-tinypil... · Posted by u/mtlynch

mtlynch · 2 years ago

Author here.

I'm happy to answer any questions about this post, the sale process, or my time running TinyPilot.

scripper · 2 years ago

Hey there, loved the post. What do you think is next for you? Would you do it all over?

Thanks for all of the content!

scripper commented on Ask HN: Does employment feel safer at smaller companies? · Posted by u/scripper

dave4420 · 2 years ago

The established part of the business had an appalling half year and couldn’t continue to fund the not-yet-profitable digital part of the business.

If you work for a startup you know there’s always a possibility that the money will run out, but at least you know your runway.

What does “pullback” mean?

scripper · 2 years ago

Thanks. I meant “a pullback,” as in a euphemism for underperformance. The question was whether the engineers were incidental casualties.

scripper commented on Ask HN: Does employment feel safer at smaller companies? · Posted by u/scripper

pestatije · 2 years ago

no, what happens with small companies is they go bust without notice, or their showing signs theyll go bust, or the owners signal it might go bust for whatever reason...so no, it never feels safe working in a small company

scripper · 2 years ago

Thanks. I just wonder what the answer is, security-wise. I guess if you can find something self-sustaining where there isn’t a huge need to grow. That was behind my original question, a feeling that a need for profit growth drives these decisions for larger (public, or on their way there) companies. But I guess if a smaller company is not yet profitable, it’s also bearing some risk to get somewhere that it might not.