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.

Anthropic shuts down Fable, Mythos models

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/anthropic-shuts-down-fable-mythos-models-following-trump-admin...
2•Hypathia•1m ago•0 comments

The Window Has Closed

https://twitter.com/AndrewCurran_/status/2066332670817456584
1•gmays•2m ago•0 comments

Eratosthenes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes
1•helterskelter•3m ago•0 comments

Long-term lithium treatment is associated with longer leukocyte telomeres (2013)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23695236/
1•helterskelter•5m ago•0 comments

Show HN: AutoLISP in Rust/WASM, reused to script GLDF and IFC file formats

https://gldf.icu
1•holg•6m ago•1 comments

Recursion got into programming: a tale of intrigue (2014)

https://vanemden.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/how-recursion-got-into-programming-a-comedy-of-errors-3/
1•downbad_•6m ago•0 comments

A man with ALS is "the first power user" of a brain implant that lets him sp

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/15/1138953/man-als-first-power-user-brain-implant-speak-...
1•joozio•6m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Specialization to stay relevant in the age of AI

1•WhyIsItAlwaysHN•7m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Can you stay relevant against AI via specialization

1•WhyIsItAlwaysHN•7m ago•0 comments

How Anthropic trained Fable 5 => by analysing its reasoning traces

https://ankitmaloo.com/fable/
2•ankit219•8m ago•0 comments

The SDK Is for Developers. The MCP Server Is for Agents

https://blog.bridgexapi.io/the-sdk-is-for-developers-the-mcp-server-is-for-agents
2•Bridgexapi•10m ago•0 comments

Scaling Security Insights at Cloudflare

https://blog.cloudflare.com/scaling-security-scans/
1•FlyingSnake•11m ago•0 comments

Can Compute Commoditize If It's Not Fungible?

https://davefriedman.substack.com/p/can-compute-commoditize-if-its-not
1•gmays•11m ago•0 comments

Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI) 2026 Live Streams

https://pldi26.sigplan.org/attending/live-streams
2•matt_d•12m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Micro Coach – an AI workout planner built by a former personal trainer

https://microcoachapp.com/
1•coreysutton7•12m ago•0 comments

Over the Hill Preview: Virtual Off-Roading That Will Lower Your Blood Pressure

https://www.thedrive.com/news/over-the-hill-preview-virtual-off-roading-that-will-lower-your-bloo...
1•cf100clunk•12m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built a tool to consolidate common domain security checks

https://swissarmytechtools.com/domain-intelligence-scanner/
1•py93•13m ago•0 comments

Stack Overflow Is Being Reborn as a Back-End Service for AI Agents

https://devops.com/stack-overflow-is-being-reborn-as-a-back-end-service-for-ai-agents/
3•CrankyBear•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Honeytree – grow a terminal forest that plants real trees as you code

https://github.com/Varun2009178/honeytree
1•varunn29•16m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Isn't Anthropic currently doing "security through obscurity" for Mythos?

1•king_zee•17m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How are you enabling your employees to do AI dev in the cloud?

1•nate•17m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Modeloop – From visual algorithms to microcontroller C code

https://www.modeloop.app/
1•lucamark•17m ago•0 comments

What does an effective org ops review process look to you?

1•mcrittenden•18m ago•0 comments

AI Cures Organizational Dementia

https://leadprompt.sh/a/735-AI-Cures-Organizational-Dementia-2026w15
1•saltysalt•18m ago•0 comments

Show HN: TLDR Equity

https://tldrequity.xyz/
1•tholford•19m ago•0 comments

The next hit: How LLMs change the way engineers work

https://www.aha.io/engineering/articles/the-next-hit-how-llms-change-the-way-engineers-work
1•FigurativeVoid•19m ago•0 comments

Building the systems that build the software

https://blog.nilenso.com/blog/2026/06/12/building-the-systems-that-build-the-software/
1•ath_ray•20m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Made my own analytics, Google Analytics let me down

https://daily-trivia.com/master-analytics-x7k29fqp#network
1•captaincrunch•20m ago•0 comments

Show HN: 100Hires MCP, 130 tools to run an ATS through LLM. Is 130 too many?

https://100hires.com/mcp
1•kravetsss•20m ago•0 comments

Estimating DuckLake query reads before execution

https://altertable.ai/blog/2026-06-15-know-what-a-query-reads
2•fvaleye•21m ago•0 comments