frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: LLM is useless without explicit prompt

4•revskill•6mo 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•6mo 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•6mo 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•6mo 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.

College 'sticker prices' have risen dramatically

https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5600854
2•mooreds•3m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Enklayve – Free, Local, Private, and Secure Personal AI

https://enklayve.com
1•hireclay•4m ago•0 comments

Show HN: TriView Explorer – Multi-pane file explorer for deep folders

1•triview•7m ago•0 comments

Conventional Commits Considered Harmful

https://larr.net/p/cc.html
1•birdculture•9m ago•0 comments

Pursue Idea (Non-AI Related), but Have No Idea Where to Start?

1•Ozernix•10m ago•0 comments

TSA to charge $18 fee for travelers without Real ID or passport

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2025/11/21/tsa-security-fee-wrong-id/
5•bookofjoe•11m ago•1 comments

A Puzzle a Day: A Month of Tiled Words

https://paulmakeswebsites.com/writing/a-month-of-tiled-words/
1•knuckleheads•17m ago•0 comments

How to Spot a Counterfeit Lithium-Ion Battery

https://spectrum.ieee.org/counterfeit-lithium-ion-batteries
1•jnord•18m ago•0 comments

ZZ9000 multifunction card for Zorro Amigas

https://www.amiga-shop.net/en/Amiga-Hardware/Amiga-graphic-cards/ZZ9000-multifunction-card-for-Zo...
1•doener•18m ago•0 comments

Human Development progress slows to 35-year low – UN Development Programme

https://www.undp.org/latin-america/press-releases/human-development-progress-slows-35-year-low-ac...
1•andsoitis•20m ago•1 comments

Don't be blinded by the web. The world is stagnating (2011)

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/feb/13/will-hutton-innovation-must-be-encouraged
2•andsoitis•21m ago•0 comments

What you should know from a trove of ChatGPT conversations we analyzed

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-trove-chatgpt-conversations-analyzed-213256668.html
1•jnord•24m ago•0 comments

Not in Our Name

https://aeon.co/essays/it-is-not-democratic-to-go-to-war-without-the-peoples-consent
1•makerdiety•25m ago•0 comments

Are we dreaming big enough?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV7YgnPUxcU
1•andsoitis•26m ago•0 comments

Journalist or not, photography isn't a hate crime

https://freedom.press/issues/journalist-or-not-photography-isnt-a-hate-crime/
1•donohoe•26m ago•0 comments

Weird Old Book Finder

https://www.weirdoldbookfinder.net/
4•bookofjoe•28m ago•1 comments

An AI agent framework used by fintechs

https://github.com/Upsonic/Upsonic
1•bakigul•31m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Can you share what you built using Cursor/Agentic IDEs?

4•ludamn•32m ago•0 comments

SO-YOU-DONT-HAVE-TO INCORPORATED'); DROP TABLE companies; --

https://sydht.ai/
3•grep_it•39m ago•0 comments

Artificial Intelligence and Origin of Life Prize, $10M USD

https://www.herox.com/evolution2.0
1•gwerbret•40m ago•0 comments

Seattle Airport Faces Fuel Shortage

https://onemileatatime.com/news/seattle-airport-fuel-shortage-airlines-impacted/
2•sgoblin•41m ago•0 comments

Microsoft open sourced Zork 1,2 and 3

https://hackaday.com/2025/11/21/microsoft-open-sources-zork-i-ii-and-iii/
1•eibrahim•41m ago•1 comments

Hacker conference installed a literal antivirus monitoring system

https://www.wired.com/story/this-hacker-conference-installed-a-literal-anti-virus-monitoring-system/
1•sohkamyung•42m ago•0 comments

Netherlands opens fire on suspicious drones near base with US nuclear weapons

https://kyivindependent.com/netherlands-opens-fire-on-suspicious-drones-near-air-base-housing-us-...
2•wslh•42m ago•1 comments

Chromium Team Re-Opens JPEG XL Feature Ticket

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40168998
2•dweekly•42m ago•2 comments

Suggestopedia: Language learning method with Baroque music and relaxation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suggestopedia
1•vjerancrnjak•42m ago•0 comments

Far-UVC: Continuous, safe, quiet protection against airborne diseases

https://www.faruvc.org
1•jefftk•42m ago•0 comments

Show HN: FlashDrive 1987 – "First Ride", an AI-assisted short film experiment [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDuafGc4btc
1•ErkMkd•43m ago•0 comments

Helicase-mediated mechanism of SSU processome maturation and disassembly

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09688-3
1•PaulHoule•44m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Pastehub.app – client-side "what did I just copy?" tool

https://www.pastehub.app/
2•jcfs•45m ago•0 comments