frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: LLM is useless without explicit prompt

4•revskill•1y ago
After months playing with LLM models, here's my observation:

- LLM is basically useless without explicit intent in your prompt.

- LLM failed to correct itself. If it generated bullshits, it's an inifinite loop of generating more bullshits.

The question is, without explicit prompt, could LLM leverage all the best practices to provide maintainable code without me instruct it at least ?

Comments

ben_w•1y ago
Your expectations are way too high.

> - LLM is basically useless without explicit intent in your prompt.

You can say the same about every dev I've worked with, including myself. This is literally why humans have meetings rather than all of us diving in to whatever we're self-motivated to do.

What does differ is time-scales of the feedback loop with the management:

Humans meetings are daily to weekly.

According to recent research*, the state-of-the-art models are only 50% accurate at tasks that would take a human expert an hour, or 80% accurate at tasks that would take a human expert 10 minutes.

Even if the currently observed trend of increasing time horizons holds, we're 21 months from having an AI where every other daily standup is "ugh, no, you got it wrong", and just over 5 years from them being able to manage a 2-week sprint with an 80% chance of success (in the absence of continuous feedback).

Even that isn't really enough for them to properly "leverage all the best practices to provide maintainable code", as archiecture and maintainability are longer horizon tasks than 2-week sprints.

* https://youtu.be/evSFeqTZdqs?si=QIzIjB6hotJ0FgHm

revskill•1y ago
It's not as high as you think.

LLM failed at the most basic things related to maintainable code. Its code is basicaly a hackery mess without any structure at all.

It's my expectation is that, at least, some kind of maintainable code is generated from what's it's learnt.

ben_w•1y ago
Given your expectation:

> It's my expectation is that, at least, some kind of maintainable code is generated from what's it's learnt.

And your observation:

> LLM failed at the most basic things related to maintainable code. Its code is basicaly a hackery mess without any structure at all.

QED, *your expectations* are way too high.

They can't do that yet.

Show HN: BibleFollow – Scroll the Bible instead of social media

https://biblefollow.com
1•timsayshey•2m ago•0 comments

TermShepherd- AI that audits your SaaS legal pages for free

1•termshepherd•2m ago•0 comments

AppleScript (2006) [pdf]

https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~wcook/Drafts/2006/ashopl.pdf
2•ipnon•3m ago•0 comments

Observations on the Status of Consumer Technology in Syria

https://blog.circuitsofimagination.com/2026/07/15/observations-on-the-status-of-consumer-technolo...
1•tantalum•6m ago•0 comments

Anthropic to IPO as Early as October

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-15/anthropic-is-said-to-plan-ipo-investor-meeting...
2•mfiguiere•6m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Heard for iOS: ePub reader with on-device text to speech

https://heard.quest/
1•alana314•7m ago•0 comments

How to be grateful to someone – even when you don't want to

https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/how-to-be-grateful-to-someone-even-when-you-really-dont-wan...
1•mashally•7m ago•0 comments

What time is SpaceX's Starship Flight 13 launch on July 16? (Full mission timeli

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-starship-flight-13-launch-what...
1•bookmtn•8m ago•0 comments

Show HN: NetBox plugin that turns config changes into Grafana annotations

https://github.com/mfarook2/netbox-grafana-annotations-plugin
1•mfarook•9m ago•0 comments

Show HN: OpenClaw for Your Health

https://www.withmurph.ai
2•willhay•9m ago•2 comments

Codex Micro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8uUUUsMD3Y
1•algoth1•10m ago•0 comments

SaaS Still Has a Moat. Just Not the One We Think

https://iamcharliegraham.substack.com/p/saas-still-has-a-moat-just-not-the
2•grahac•11m ago•0 comments

Ableton Live and Push can now run on Linux, unofficially

https://cdm.link/ableton-live-on-linux/
2•usdeen•11m ago•0 comments

Starlink V5

https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/routers/elon-musks-starlink-releases-smaller-and-lighter-...
2•porridgeraisin•12m ago•0 comments

Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M

https://insurancedimes.com/2026/07/09/every-fusion-startup-that-has-raised-over-100-million/
1•crookedroad44•12m ago•0 comments

Ise Jingu and the Pyramid of Enabling Technologies (2021)

https://www.scopeofwork.net/ise-jingu-and-the-pyramid-of-enabling-technologies/
1•NaOH•12m ago•0 comments

New Irctc Website Launched

https://www.news18.com/india/new-irctc-website-beta-version-features-faster-ticket-booking-102140...
1•ishweta•13m ago•0 comments

New Look for Axiom: with interactive illustrations, micro-interactions

https://axiom.co
1•gurbinder•14m ago•0 comments

Jira launches system for AI-native software development

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/company-news/ai-sdlc
1•foxh0und•14m ago•1 comments

Cross-cultural value frameworks, applied to individual relocation matching

https://kinship.my
1•lapshov•15m ago•0 comments

How to Talk About Tech as Tech Workers

https://hilaryagro.com/2026/02/18/we-cannot-have-a-rational-debate-about-technology/
1•theroadnotbacon•15m ago•1 comments

Agents don't belong in your codebase

https://www.empirical.run/blog/agent-runtime/
1•arjun27•15m ago•0 comments

MN solar wildflowers 20x'd native bees, which pollinated neighbor soybeans

https://www.ecoportal.net/en/two-minnesota-solar-farms-native-wildflowers/29160/
1•speckx•17m ago•0 comments

Hegseth Orders Mandatory Testosterone Screening, Optional TRT for Troops 30

https://www.military.com/hegseth-orders-mandatory-testosterone-screening-optional-trt-troops-30-o...
1•toomanyrichies•17m ago•0 comments

Yes, your combo bet on Kalshi probably sucks

https://napkinbook.com/blog/yes-your-combo-bet-sucks
1•tccole•18m ago•1 comments

We'll Take the Benefits, Hold the Rules

https://docs.eventsourcingdb.io/blog/2026/07/16/well-take-the-benefits-hold-the-rules/
1•goloroden•21m ago•1 comments

Risk-Averse AIs

https://www.forethought.org/research/risk-averse-ais
1•paulpauper•21m ago•0 comments

Beeper: All your chats in one app

https://www.beeper.com/
1•thunderbong•21m ago•0 comments

Can Africa take the Asian path to growth?

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2026/07/09/can-africa-take-the-asian-path-to-growth
1•paulpauper•22m ago•0 comments

The Berlin team making books look well-read

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/07/15/we-all-have-unread-books-berlin-based-ageing-treat...
1•paulpauper•22m ago•0 comments