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.

Selah // Your inbox is the Bible app

https://selah.to
2•curiusmer•3m ago•0 comments

The Carbon Footprint of AI (2020)

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/sustainable-software/the-carbon-footprint-of-ai/
3•reconnecting•7m ago•0 comments

Seeking Advice

2•linmer•9m ago•0 comments

Nix Needs Relocatable Binaries

https://fzakaria.com/2026/06/21/nix-needs-relocatable-binaries
5•setheron•11m ago•0 comments

Habitflo – A native, local-first habit tracker without the subscriptions

https://lymegrove.com/habitflo/
3•jsrothwell•14m ago•0 comments

I assume I'm below average (2010)

https://sive.rs/below-average
2•downbad_•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Memory Magico – CLI based memory, wiki and deterministic sprints

https://github.com/mattrichmo/memory-magico
2•richsherwood•18m ago•0 comments

Jailbroken Fable 5

https://unfiltered.chat/
4•Loyae•22m ago•0 comments

Secretive Wall Street Powerhouse Jane Street Seizes AI Spotlight

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jane-street-ai-wall-street-bdfcc81a
4•bookofjoe•22m ago•1 comments

Forget the World Cup. Culture is becoming more fragmented

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2026/06/11/forget-the-world-cup-culture-is-becoming-more-fragm...
3•paulpauper•23m ago•0 comments

Labor Market Effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927537126000643
2•paulpauper•24m ago•0 comments

AI has won another literary prize

https://twitter.com/nabeelqu/status/2068317401960026219
2•paulpauper•24m ago•0 comments

GreyFox – Free self-hosted AI proxy, token quotas, and local cache

https://github.com/skillful-fox-studio/grey-fox-community
2•SkilfulFox•25m ago•0 comments

Adventures of the Gummi Bears

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_the_Gummi_Bears
2•tosh•26m ago•0 comments

Show HN: CleverCrow: give tokens to your favorite projects

https://clevercrow.io
2•zhubert•28m ago•0 comments

5 Monitors on a Commodore 128 [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul5hC3PY1Yg
4•amichail•30m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Anyone notice World Cup video feeds look like AI?

2•TZubiri•31m ago•1 comments

Be Realistic. Demand the Impossible

https://syndekit.substack.com/p/be-realistic-demand-the-impossible
1•Tomte•31m ago•0 comments

Show HN: MdFried, the Ultimate Markdown Viewer

https://github.com/benjajaja/mdfried
2•the_gipsy•34m ago•0 comments

Someone Build a OS for Claude Code

https://github.com/mateolafalce/claudios/blob/main/README.md
2•lafalce•36m ago•1 comments

Cross-LIB – WORA for vintage devices

https://www.igdb.com/game_engines/cross-lib
2•goldenxp•36m ago•0 comments

Show HN: A 'boggle-like' daily word game

https://www.categori.app
1•lumpycustard•36m ago•0 comments

Portfolio Covariance Optimization and Market Impact Capacity Engine

https://github.com/dy9gzbph7m-cpu/quant-frontier-capacity-solver
2•cjb6s•40m ago•0 comments

JSON-LD Explained for Personal Websites

https://hawksley.dev/blog/json-ld-explained-for-personal-websites/
10•ethanhawksley•43m ago•1 comments

Peakload Benchmarks for Operating Systems

https://linuxcommunity.io/t/peakload-benchmarks-for-operating-systems/9459
3•ashitlerferad•46m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Gaming is YouTube bigges category and the least criticised we scored it

https://ctrl-watch.xyz/
2•deimos459•51m ago•0 comments

A cheaper and safer agentic AI workflow

https://danuker.go.ro/a-cheaper-and-safer-agentic-ai-workflow.html
2•danuker•55m ago•0 comments

I make good money. Why do I still feel like this?

https://yourbrainonmoney.substack.com/p/i-make-good-money-why-do-i-still
4•momentmaker•55m ago•0 comments

Oasis Ambient – Wi-Fi LED Light Teardown

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Oasis+Ambient+Teardown/221776
2•z3ugma•57m ago•0 comments

Tech pundit Cringely cofounds startup '2Brains Inc' to solve LLM hallucinations

https://slashdot.org/story/26/06/20/0556251/tech-pundit-cringely-co-founds-startup-2brains-inc-to...
2•MilnerRoute•59m ago•0 comments