This is what’s needed to get the most out of these tools. You understand deeply how the tool works and so you’re able to optimize its inputs in order to get good results.
This puts you in the top echelon of developers using AI assisted coding. Most developers don’t have this deep of an understanding and so they don’t get results as good as yours.
So there’s a big question here for AI tool vendors. Is AI assisted coding a power tool for experts, or is it a tool for the “Everyman” developer that’s easy to use?
Usage data shows that the most adopted AI coding tool is still ChatGPT, followed by Copilot (even if you’d think it’s Cursor from reading HN :-))
I wrote a SWE bench solver. The SWE bench issues are on mature projects like Django.
The objective of my solver was to get good solutions using only RAG (no embeddings) and with minimal cost (low token count).
Three techniques, combined, yielded good results. The first was to take a TDD approach, first generating a test and then requiring the LLM to pass the test (without failing others). It can also trace the test execution to see exactly what code participates in the feature.
The second technique was to separate “planning” from “coding”. The planner is freed from implementation details, and can worry more about figuring out which files to change, following existing code conventions, not duplicating code, etc. In the coding phase, the LLM is working from a predefined plan, and has little freedom to deviate. It just needs to create a working, lint-free implementation.
The third technique was a gentle pressure on the solver to make small changes in a minimum number of files (ideally, one).
AI coding tools today generally don’t incorporate any of this. They don’t favor TDD, they don’t have a bias towards making minimal changes, and they don’t work from a pre-approved design.
Good human developers do these things, and this is a pretty wide gap between adept human coders and AI.
Sports is entertainment. It inspires people and brings joy. It brings people together. It sets positive examples of the rewards that can come from consistent effort and teamwork. Athletes are people making the most of the gifts they’ve been given. This is all laudable.
To me there's something more than just entertainment in the idea of sport, of finding the limits of the human body and will. It's almost like art—it's evidence of human flourishing and it should appear as one of the final products of a successful society.
It certainly shows how much more rewarding it is to work for the IOC, a government, or a corporation than it is to be an Olympian. It shows that being genetically gifted is the primary metric of success in sports (I don't care how hard you work, you aren't ever out-swimming Michael Phelps), and a lot of things bring people together that don't cost $10 billion, most of which is funneled into a bunch of hidden pockets.
That can certainly be the case, although usually I find that athletes are not the kind of people who should be considered inspirational.
But on the other hand, if you were to go watch a launch from SpaceX, You will find that there's already a crowd being inspired, experiencing joy, and it absolutely brings people together. So why not work more on that and less on sports?
>But on the other hand, if you were to go watch a launch from SpaceX, You will find that there's already a crowd being inspired, experiencing joy, and it absolutely brings people together. So why not work more on that and less on sports?
You go find me a Space X launch in some of the countries that produce, say, top footballers. In those countries, then go find me a robust educational infrastructure. You won't find the educational resources for one to become a top aerospace engineer or astrophysicist in say, Ghana or Mali.
Sports are popular because enjoying them either by playing or watching doesn't require a ton of brain power.
Let people enjoy what they want, who are you (or I) to judge?
It’s astounding how bad FB Marketplace search is, though. For very popular things, it’s fine. For browsing and “huh, that’s interesting,” it’s fine.
But if I am looking for something specific, it is an incredible failure. It’s so bad I suspect they intentionally don’t want it to work well. That is, I think they only want to optimize for low-effort social buying, not picky people who know exactly what they want.
For this reason I have bought way more stuff off eBay than FB Marketplace recently.
It seems to just ignore filters like “date listed” sometimes too. And people will list items at nominal prices and give the actual price in the description. Generally a poor experience.
It also doesn’t seem to respect the distance filter.
I’m not one for conspiracy theories usually, but I’m pretty sure the state of Marketplace search is, if not ‘deliberate’, at least a result of metrics-driven development. The search results are _just_ useful enough to keep you scrolling and tapping, so the vagueness increases engagement :-(
ebay is still useful for obscure stuff. if you want to buy used servers, GPU, electronics, car parts, etc. I don't think ebay and FB MP really overlapped, MP ate craigslist. The closest thing to eating ebay is Aliexpress.
I found ebay more reliable, interesting and smoother than Amazon. Amazon screwed me over for 40 USD now they are nagging that I should sign up for "Prime"
(I ordered a bunch of stuff, maybe 800 USD. They decided the order is fraudulent, and canceled it, without ever telling me. When I moved into my new place, there was nothing. No sheets, no nothing from Amazon. That this order was "canceled" without any email seemed to puzzle Amazon support. They told me in the chat to reorder with fasted shipping, and that they would reimburse the shipping. Of course, they did not. And the chat protocols clearly stating Amazon would reimburse the express shipping were a "misunderstanding".
Last time I ordered from amazon, I repeatedly declined prime. My bank called me the next day about a suspicious charge for a year of prime. I had to cancel my card and get a new one. The banker told me they'd had dozens of similar problems where amazon was charging people for stuff they never ordered.
When I got the package a few days later, the $150+ set of cello strings I ordered, sold and shipped by amazon, were counterfeits (and damaged due to improper packing, not that it mattered). I had to do a charge back to get my money back.
Amazon is the American version of Temu, Aliexpress, etc nowadays; I wouldn't use it for anything but their own products (Kindle). For specialist items like the cello strings you mentioned, music shops are thankfully still a thing, both online/webshops as irl ones. I'd go there instead. Same with books.
It's borderline impossible for the high street to compete on fungible goods like art supplies and books. The only real value in those shops is knowledgeable and passionate staff who share your interests.
Agreed, I normally wouldn't buy strings from anyone but a reputable violin shop. The strings I wanted were new and none of the small shops could get them at the time.
The label looked like it was printed on a cheap ink jet printer. The colors on the label weren't the right shades either.
The strings were guitar strings rather than cello strings. They're too short for a cello. The winding metal is different too. A bow doesn't grip guitar strings as well.
Most counterfeiters send super cheap cello strings with a fake label. In those cases, the best way to tell is that the silk windings on the strings will be the wrong colors.
There's a huge difference in sound. Cheap/fake strings tend to sound metallic and harsh. They also tend to break quickly, while a proper set of strings can last over a year.
Btw, 'informal' agreements, even oral only, are legally binding, though it may (?) vary by state. For example an email is legally binding.
In a case like this,there's not even the need for small claims - if you just contacted the better business bureau, you'd have gotten reimbursed the shipping and then something reasonable on top as 'an apology for the misunderstanding.'
BBB accreditation is a big deal for most major companies, and it includes an obligation to resolve issues (exactly like this one) with their arbitration. I've used them 3 times, with 3 positive (and rapid) outcomes.
Next time you have a straightforward 'they're wrong' issue with a company where you're getting outsourced flowcharts for support, try out the bbb. They're great.
Small claims would obviously also work, but that's a major investment in time/bureaucrazy, while a bbb complaint can be completed online in 10 minutes with maybe one or two brief follow-ups, but usually all it is, is them getting in contact with a human who can do things - and for cases like this, they obviously try to make it right.
I would have to file in small claims court. And for 40 USD I am not willing to do this.
I think you don't need even an oral agreement for a contract to be valid. Conclusive action is enough. Take a newspaper, but 2 USD on the table, leave. No words exchanged but valid sales contract established.
yeah amazon is rly weird. did had prime and cancelled it but the cancellation was retracted 3 times in the background and i had to pay 3 months more prime… never ever.. now its only expensive aliexpress and some netflix
eBay and Facebook Marketplace don’t really compete. FB is better for normal fungible items. eBay is better for specialty stuff. Don’t forget that you have to pay to list and usually have to ship on eBay. It’s two totally different vibes.
If I wanted to sell a Dewalt angle grinder, I would go to Facebook first.
If I wanted to sell a Sony E-mount camera lens, I would go to eBay first.
Most used things I buy make more sense on Facebook. Most people I know use Facebook because they are usually looking for regular things.
FB marketplace is full of people wasting your time.
"Is this still available?" Yes it is - never heard from again.
I stopped giving out my address. I will give a general area where we can meet so they can gauge how far it is for them. When they are on their way, I give them the public location to meet. Only serious people will meet me. On some occasions, I still get ghosted. But ghosting has become more and more common. I don't recall it being this bad when Craigslist was huge.
I miss the olden craigslist days sometimes. Even responses that sounded like scams were somehow real people at times. I once sold a PSP Vita hours after listing it on Craigslist. The response had superbroken english and was insistent they had to buy it in the next two hours at X location. That location happened to be about a mile down the road from my job so I humored them. Turned out it was just a guy from out of country that was only there one more day for oil field training. Paid me in cash and didn't even hassle the price.
Yeah, FB marketplace is the worst for that. I end up putting up with it, though, because it also has a lot of legitimate buyers and no fees.
I usually just give folks my home address and a time I'm going to be home anyways, and ask them to send me a message once they're on their way. Then I generally forget about it until I get a message from them. If they ghost me, oh well.
I don't take the ad down, and if anyone else asks, I just tell them to ask me again after the scheduled time.
I like how you put the context and prompts into the foreground. In so many tools, it’s invisible. We all know that context and prompts are there - the operation of LLMs is well known. Yet tools try and hide this and pretend that they are magic, instead of exposing control points and handles for the developer to use.
I think people / the market have gotten a little too excited about something AI is actually pretty bad at - making changes to existing code (which is, after all, most of the code).
AI software devs don’t understand requirements well, and they don’t write code that confirms to established architecture practices. They will happily create redundant functions and routes and tables, in order to deliver “working code”.
So AI coding is bunk? No, it’s just that the primary value lies elsewhere than code generation. You can stuff A LOT of context into an LLM and ask it to explain how the system works. You can ask it to create a design that emulates existing patterns. You can feed it a diff of code and ask it to look for common problems and anti-patterns. You can ask it create custom diagrams, documentation and descriptions and it will do so quickly and accurately.
These are all use cases that assist with coding, yet don’t involve actually writing code. They make developers more knowledgeable and they assist with decision making and situational awareness. They reduce tedium and drudgery without turning developers into mindless “clickers of the Tab key”.
This puts you in the top echelon of developers using AI assisted coding. Most developers don’t have this deep of an understanding and so they don’t get results as good as yours.
So there’s a big question here for AI tool vendors. Is AI assisted coding a power tool for experts, or is it a tool for the “Everyman” developer that’s easy to use?
Usage data shows that the most adopted AI coding tool is still ChatGPT, followed by Copilot (even if you’d think it’s Cursor from reading HN :-))