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.

Shrtcts – Know Your Shorcuts

https://shrtcts.click/
1•talktodasha•11s ago•0 comments

Musk to speak at chip tool giant ASML event ahead of SpaceX IPO

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/musk-speak-chip-tool-giant-asml-event-ahead-spacex...
1•dainank•1m ago•0 comments

Show HN: yawac – a macOS client for WhatsApp, Swift, no Electron, no BS

https://github.com/vadika/yawac/
1•vadikas•8m ago•0 comments

We Built a Real-Time Implied Volatility Engine for Commodity Options

https://medium.com/@DolphinDB_Inc/how-we-built-a-real-time-implied-volatility-engine-for-commodit...
1•CrazyTomato•8m ago•0 comments

The Ideal Bestest Base Font Size That Everyone Is Keeping a Secret

https://adrianroselli.com/2024/03/the-ultimate-ideal-bestest-base-font-size-that-everyone-is-keep...
1•ravenical•9m ago•0 comments

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Has Only One Direct Report

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-10/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-is-a-manager-to-onl...
2•petethomas•14m ago•0 comments

Billions in Loans Didn't Make a Dent in Global Poverty

https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/poverty-microfinancing-loans-entrepreneurs-de458ee8
1•JumpCrisscross•16m ago•0 comments

Show HW: nomd, HTML md editor

https://nomd.dev
1•pcald•17m ago•0 comments

Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

https://vale.rocks/posts/game-console-browsers
2•robin_reala•18m ago•0 comments

Ex-Board Member Reveals Corruption and Dysfunction at Gnome Foundation

https://lunduke.substack.com/p/ex-board-member-reveals-corruption
2•MrJulia•19m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Corterm – self-hosted remote terminal that survives disconnects

https://github.com/monster-echo/CortexTerminal2
1•rwecho•19m ago•1 comments

V2 Editor (2025)

https://oktana.dev/blog/introducing-v2-editor/
2•rapnie•19m ago•0 comments

Getting Started with Datastar – Build a Rust and Axum Todo App

https://hamy.xyz/blog/2026-03_datastar-rust-todo
1•alex_hirner•19m ago•0 comments

Our AI-slop ad turned out weirdly good [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPgq4eopYcs
1•nxnze•19m ago•1 comments

I made a chess leaderboard that rewards cool checkmates instead of just Elo

https://chessranks.net/
1•nashrashal•22m ago•0 comments

Tiny wasp helps prevent first global bird extinction in Britain for 60 years

https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/tiny-wasp-helps-prevent-the-first-global-bird-extinc...
1•austinallegro•23m ago•2 comments

OT Segmentation: Why the Framework Matters Less Than the Discipline

https://www.emberot.com/resources/blog/ot-segmentation-discipline-framework/
1•TheWiggles•23m ago•0 comments

I added a prompt to future ASI – TLBIC Policy Proposal v5 now available

1•michikawa59•25m ago•0 comments

IBM's Spyre AI Accelerator Deep Dive – By Gavin Bonshor

https://morethanmoore.substack.com/p/ibms-spyre-ai-accelerator-deep-dive
1•rbanffy•27m ago•0 comments

Making a Vintage LLM from Scratch

https://crlf.link/log/entries/260525-1/
2•croqaz•27m ago•1 comments

Collaborative Memory Chrome Extension

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/xysq-memory-for-you-and-y/knpcnfdnahkinongbiedcllmigffodpm
1•ximihoque•28m ago•0 comments

Unmasking the Energy Transition Myth [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H24Xzi7Xi5I
1•leonidasrup•29m ago•1 comments

The "steroid Olympics" were a circus–and a window into our culture

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/10/1138670/enhanced-games-doping-steroids-hormones-suppl...
1•joozio•32m ago•0 comments

Show HN: SynCodeLive – code and talk with your team along with AI, live

https://syncodelive.com/
1•ketul_shah•34m ago•0 comments

Agentic Coding and Mental Models

https://philbooth.me/blog/agentic-coding-and-mental-models
1•philbo•36m ago•0 comments

Framework delays Laptop 13 Pro due to bugs, but there's a bonus

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3162530/framework-delays-laptop-13-pro-due-to-bugs-but-theres-a-b...
1•cassianoleal•36m ago•0 comments

Why Sell Lifetime Plans, in a Default Subscription World?

https://pketh.org/lifetime-plans.html
1•ZacnyLos•37m ago•1 comments

Extra Time – a retro-newspaper companion for the 2026 World Cup

https://extra-time-wc2026.netlify.app
1•regevaz•40m ago•0 comments

The vulnerability bottleneck has moved

https://evahill1.substack.com/p/the-vulnerability-bottleneck-has
2•evaXhill•40m ago•0 comments

Connected Notes and Writing from Curiosity Turned a Hobby into a Career

https://www.ssp.sh/blog/why-i-still-blog/
2•zazuke•41m ago•0 comments