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What are you working on? Any new ideas that you're thinking about?

Is it down for you?

Theoretically, what would be the downside of replacing expensive CEOs with AI agents?

I was recently laid off at a big tech company after 10 years. And now I am facing the harsh reality of trying to crack leetcode medium/hard problems (something I never managed to do routinely while I was working at this company). Is anyone here in a similar situation or has been in one? If so, how do you keep yourself motivated to solve multiple problems a day, especially knowing you are actually never going to work on such problems as part of an actual job?

Edit: I need to practice leetcode because the interview process for almost every software engineering role (especially in the Bay Area) seems to require going through at least one round of coding challenge based on leetcode medium/hard problem. I did not call it out earlier because I thought this is a very obvious point. Perhaps, I should have clarified that I am mostly targeting software engg roles.

500 level errors started at 4:10PM PST.

and ended at 4:16PM PST.

I have been coding for more than 20 years now and nothing has changed my coding habit more than LLMs. I am a touch typer and use a blue mechnical keyboard since I love typing so much and have been used to writing a lot of code.

But ever since LLMs have released, I do find myself writing long prompts and then waiting for LLM to do the implementation. They are not perfect by any means and make a lot of mistakes, but I have found that verbose prompting does usually get the job done.

Now these sessions usually last a few hours due to how slow LLMs are and I usually work on larger pieces of work. I am used to working long hours and typing for a long time, but this is new. I find myself waiting for 70% of the time for an operation to happen.

I find myself watching tv shows or youtube videos or even doing some creative writing on the side while LLMs do their work.

So I was just wondering what other creative things the HN crowd has come up with to do while LLMs are doing the grunt work for you.

I have tried aider, aider-ce, and opencode. I'm on Windows 11, I code in Windows using MSYS2's bash-like shell and in Ubuntu via WSL2 (so just bash).

In my experience, aider is the best out of the three. It has the least features too, but it "just works" the best. I tell the tool exactly what I want done and after learning a bit it goes and does that right like 90% of the time.

With aider-ce and opencode, I ran into way too many bugs. For example in Windows right now it seems that copy pasting just doesn't work, which is a massive loss of functionality when you can't copy paste important snippets to the model.

Opencode looks really cool as a TUI with the themes and such, but I really didn't like how random these agents are. I don't know if claude code and codex are like this too, but whatever simple task I give out could be solved right away or it could for some reason result in taking 5x as long as aider as it calls random tools, tries to do web searches for documentation that is technically correct but not the thing it needs, running into 403's probably because of bot detection, and then trying that 3 more times before it submits a worse patch than what aider would have made.

I'd just stick to aider, but aider-ce (community expansion) exists because the dev just kinda stopped working on it despite the fact that it has as many stars as opencode. Wondering if there are any better alternatives out there or maybe if others feel the same way about what's happening to aider. Its a shame because aider really is great at just applying AI just enough that I don't have to stress about its stochastic nature and it just does exactly what I asked no more no less. I feel like I have maximal control over AI running on my code with aider.

As a tech parent I think one of the best things I did for both my son and daughter was for their first computer to help them to build and setup their own Linux computer (It was Ubuntu back then but they’ve both moved themselves to Arch these days).

We went together and bought a second hand desktop (exciting the people selling to us also) and when I got home I pulled out the Ram, HD and CD drive and set them aside; and then together with a screwdriver we “built the computer” over a few days.

In windows when a child goes searching the web for a “movie maker for windows” they are going to be in a world of hurt either finding expensive commercial options or super scammy sites promising the world.

By comparison on Linux if they search the local “app store” they’ll find stacks and stacks of free, useful, open licensed software.

My kids loved the power, freedom and later unexpected community this bought them.

Now my friend wants the same for their daughter who is 8 years old.

I’m planning to do the same and go with her parents and her and buy a second hand desktop together and then put Linux on it.

My question is where would you go from there? What suggestions do you have? What to install? Any mini “curriculums” or ideas?

Would love to hear your ideas and experiences. Linux with free and open software is the goal and focus.

I had a situation occur where Cursor demonstrated it already knew what was in my clipboard. A pleasant feature, but jarring because I hadn't started working yet and didn't expect it to know what was in my clipboard.

I think a year ago I would have 'expected' this but have grown pretty complacent using AI apps and lately have started becoming more shocked realizing how much they are collecting constantly.

I am a software engineer with about 20 years of experience, and lately I have felt a bit lost about what to do going forward.

For the context, I have always been passionate about software engineering, I started very young and have worked in it non stop every since. I mostly worked broadly in web development and have pretty-much mastered all areas and layers of the stack (infra and cloud, databases, backend, network, front-end and even a bit of mobile...). I've also been an indie game dev on my free time ever since.

For the last 5~10 years I have not been evolving or learning anymore in my daily job, and feel that I've basically seen everything. It only feels repetitive, and as I've lived through many tech bubbles, I don't get much interested in the major trends because the fundamentals are the same and everything old gets new again.

Over the years, I've worked in many companies, from big ones to fresh startups, B2B and B2C, in direct and as a contractor as well as web dev agencies. I've also found out that while I like tech leading and the various design and spec phases of software, I don't like managing people. I do not want to evolve as a CTO either because of those reasons and the endless meetings. But the industry seems to think that the normal path forward is to quit being a developer and manage people instead, which is a totally alien idea to me because it involves completely different skills and knowledge.

I am now at a step in my career where I find it impossible to find a company where my knowledge and experience is really valued and useful. I'm often the most senior, more than even the managers and CTOs, but have less power or influence and am just another cog in the machine. I see the mistakes being made and know what it will cost (because I've been there and done that many times), I do my best to explain that and recommend alternatives, but more often than not it still happens anyway.

I've long considered switching to game dev professionally since I find that it has a lot more fun and interesting challenge, and I yet have lots of things to learn there. But as a husband and a dad, the reputation of the industry (low salary and crunch time) makes it difficult to seriously consider. I'm now thinking that freelancing my be my best bet going forward, and then explore and build things from here.

I know that there are more senior (30, 40+ years...) people around here, so I'm curious to hear your experiences. Did you ever feel the same way, what did you do and how did you finally find a satisfying daily job?

I'm a junior. Truth be told, I don't really care if professionals/adults see my code or pick it apart/mock it/fork it or whatever. All my repos are private just because I worry about other students being lazy and just ripping my hard work and claiming it as their own. That really pisses me off when I hear some horror stories like that.

Is this unfounded? Or do I have a right for some concern? It's obviously easier for viewers to just see public code repos and browse without ever requesting access so I know I'm losing some traffic (from my portfolio site)

I was thinking the alternative would be just linking my demo on my portfolio site as a proof of concept that yes I made it, yes it works, and if you're curious , here's a link to the code u can request independently of github.

Thank you in advance.

Just saw the CEO of Substack celebrating traffic from X/Twitter shooting up thinking they stopped suppressing tweets with links[0]. Actually, this traffic is because now any time you open a tweet with a link, the in-app webview loads in the background, and displays when you press the link.

I run an ecom store that gets a lot of its customers from Twitter. I was also shocked to see my traffic double or triple overnight and thought the algorithm had blessed me and my business. Soon realized what was actually happening. Thought other traffic-monitors might appreciate this explanation.

Meanwhile Nikita Bier is pretending they never suppressed tweets with links to begin with, offering the alternative explanation: "a common complaint is that posts with links tend to get lower reach. This is because the web browser covers the post and people forget to Like or Reply. So X doesn't get a clear signal whether the content is any good"[1]. A bit of a rewriting of history since Elon and his mom both tweeted about how it wasn't fair to use his platform to promote other links/platforms, even banning people who shared profiles of other social networks (including Paul Graham for a period). They suppressed all links shortly after.

[0] https://x.com/cjgbest/status/1985464687350485092

[1] https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1979994223224209709

In 1998, Larry Page introduced PageRank, a network-based algorithm that measured the importance of web pages by analyzing how they linked to one another. It was a breakthrough: instead of relying on keyword matching alone, PageRank treated the web as a graph of endorsements. That idea became the foundation of Google and reshaped how information is organized online. Over time, PageRank evolved far beyond search. Variants of the algorithm now support spam detection in Gmail and Outlook, Sybil resistance in social networks like Instagram and Facebook, and many other systems where reputation, trust, and network structure matter. PageRank proved that when you can map relationships, you can measure credibility at scale.

>The Web3 Challenge: Pseudonymity and the Rise of Sybil Attacks In Web3, and on Solana in particular, pseudonymity is a double-edged sword. It enables open participation, but it also makes scams, fake identities, and Sybil attacks easy to execute. A single actor can spin up thousands of wallets, manufacture artificial community signals, or launch multiple fraudulent projects in minutes. As the Internet Capital Market trend grows and capital moves faster, the demand for legitimacy is clear. Investors want real projects, not vaporware. Builders want a way to prove trustworthiness without doxxing themselves. Communities want signals that cannot be faked.

>A New Opportunity: PageRank for Solana This creates space for a powerful opportunity: a decentralized trust graph for Solana, inspired by PageRank, that evaluates how trustworthy a developer, team, or project is without requiring any personal identity or private information. Instead of links between web pages, each participant in the network would receive a unique token representing their node. Trust flows through the graph from node to node as they invest in or support one another. These directed edges form an economic relationship graph that can be analyzed with a PageRank-style algorithm. By observing where capital moves, how projects choose to back each other, and which connections attract follow-on investment, the network can compute a dynamic trust score that is hard to manipulate and easy to interpret.

>The PUMP.NETWORK Experiment This is why we created pump.network, a prototype designed to test this approach. Once released, users will be able to invite their friends and help expand the graph until we reach a critical volume of nodes. After that, we will implement an invest to vouch mechanism that computes a trust score for each participant. Trusted nodes will then be able to surface projects they believe are viable and trustworthy, giving the ecosystem a powerful signal layer that can grow organically.

>Why This Matters Such a system would act as infrastructure for legitimacy in Solana's emerging capital markets: Investors could instantly filter out low-trust or suspicious projects. Builders could establish reputations without revealing identities. Ecosystems could reduce fraud and improve discovery of high-quality teams. Users could navigate Web3 with confidence rather than fear. Just as PageRank transformed how the world found reliable information, a trust algorithm for Solana could transform how the ecosystem identifies reliable people and projects, bringing order, signal, and credibility to a space where pseudonymity and speed currently favor bad actors.

It is the natural next step: a trust protocol for a trustless world.

Is anybody still using TUI applications for business?

My family company is a wholesale distribution firm (with lightweight manufacturing) and has been using the same TUI application (on prem unix box) since 1993. We use it for customer management, ordering, invoicing, kit management/build tickets, financials - everything. We've transitioned from green screen terminals to modern emulators, but the core system remains. I spent many summers running serial and ethernet cables.

I left the business years ago to become a full time software engineer, but I got my start as a script kiddie writing automations for this system with Microsoft Access, VBA, and SendKeys to automate data entry. Amazingly, they still have a Windows XP machine running many of those tasks I wrote back in 2004! It's brittle, but cumulatively has probably saved years of time. That XP machine could survive a nuclear winter lol.

I recently stepped back in to help my parents and spent a day converting many of those old scripts to a more modern system (with actual error-handling instead of strategic sleep()s and prayers) using Python and telnetlib3. I had a blast and still love this application. I can fly around in it. Training new people was always a pain, but for those that got it—they had super powers.

This got me thinking: Are other companies still using this type of interface to drive their core operations? I’m reflecting on whether the only reason my family's business still uses this system is because of the efficiency hacks I put in place 20+ years ago. Without them, would they have been forced to switch to a modern cloud/GUI system? I’m not sure if I’m blinded by nostalgia or if this application is truly as wonderful as I remember it.

I’d love to hear if and how these are still being utilized in the real world.

P.S. The system we use was originally sold by ADP and has had different names (D2K, Prophet21). I believe Epicor owns it now (Activant before).

P.P.S. Is anybody migrating their old TUI automation scripts to a more modern framework or creating new ones? I’m super curious to compare notes and see what other people are doing.

It's the year 2025. We have crispr-cas9, chatgpt, new missions to the Moon and maybe Mars... and yet, it feels like there's no great solution to deal with mosquitoes. Lasers to fry them? magnetic waves to repel them? What's our there that I don't know?

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Searchers: try https://dheerajck.github.io/hnwhoishiring/, http://nchelluri.github.io/hnjobs/, https://hnresumetojobs.com, https://hnhired.fly.dev, https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/, https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com, or this (unofficial) Chrome extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/hn-hiring-pro/mpfal....

Don't miss this other fine thread: Who wants to be hired? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45800464

TLDR; is there an opportunity to compete with B2B SaaS software providers who serve small mid-market by providing a one-time licensed, "local", version of software vs a subscription SaaS offering?

When I started my computing life, software lived in boxes you bought and brought home. IT was on one to 30 disks that you'd use to run it and, every once in a while, it would ask you to pull find disk 14 and put it in to run some process.

Now, we have had about almost two decades where many products live on servers outside your system.

As I'm working on something now (I won't self promote), and it's inspiring me to try something completely different in the product and system design, to try to accomplish much more on the local file system.

I don't know if anyone's coined a term, but I've been calling it "Local-first" or "Cloudless" development. The idea is that most features can be implemented with flat files, and potentially a local sqlite, duckdb, etc.

I'm of the belief that the economy isn't in a great place and folks will look to cut. A great way to do so is to stop paying insane SaaS fees and start to use more local installed software with a one-time license purchase and you pay to upgrade as needed for features. This is the blend of the old world and new.

Software versions can be downloaded and updated from the cloud, for a fee, otherwise, you just use what you have relatively with some support guarantee, e.g. 3 years for any version, then there's no more bug fixes/support.

I'm curious if you all feel there's an opportunity to re-build a lot of the SaaS world in this model and Agents are going to make it possible by allowing normal people to handle more complex local setups for software.

I think there's opportunities for:

  - Accounting software 
  - POS
  - Scheduling 
  - CRM & client
  - Electronic Medical Records (ERM)
 

Thoughts?

It’s 2025. HN lights up a dark room like a flashlight. Can we add a few lines of CSS to support dark mode? 5 years ago and I believe the alligator needs to move https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23197966

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