5 ms·
Think we’re saying the same thing. I very actively work using LLMs (no “agentic” stuff) and agree with you - they are only really worth tasking out tedium to.
by DidntUseIt 4d ago
Think we’re saying the same thing.
I very actively work using LLMs (no “agentic” stuff) and agree with you - they are only really worth tasking out tedium to.
But a lot of - say a DM feature - is tedium. Something simple like adding reactions, adding read receipts. It’s not hard at all. The LLM easily excels at the task and yet I didn’t have to do it. There are 1000s of those tasks. Handling file uploads, filling out a W9 and emailing it to the user, cron jobs for digest emails. All very easy problems most LLMs can do. There are just countless tasks if you’re building a real SaaS and I don’t want to do them all.
The big problems LLMs can’t do are only as such because there’s no way to put it into a simple, linear instruction. Once you can though, it’s now an easy task (whether or not you use an LLM).
But yeah we’re saying the same thing - let the LLM do the 1000s of tedious tasks you normally wouldn’t be bothered to spend time on.
Build the entire SaaS (which is mostly that tedium) instead of just the MVP thing you need without any niceties. I find it opens up more opportunity, like for example, we are about to hire our first full-time employee because we’re taking on so much more business.
- joeguilmette 4d agowhat business are you in?
- j45 4d agoThe "agentic" stuff has come a long way recently, it's worth revisiting it every few months, it is better and better at taking on the tedium especially.
- whstl 4d ago> There are 1000s of those tasks. Yep. Plenty of products attacked this tedium from different angles, from Ruby and Rails to Supabase. And half of NPM. Heck, more than half. LLMs are doing it a bit better, IMO. I don't have to rewrite the app in <whatever> or install <horrible dependency> to take advantage of it.
- Chris2048 4d ago> The LLM easily excels The agents are building all these small features, up to a full SaaS; and all the code is excellent? How much time do you spend in code review?
- ReadMuch 4d ago[dead]
- bigstrat2003 4d agoThat's fine, but then the value of the tool evaporates. I agree you have to hold the LLM's hand so that it doesn't do crazy things, but that takes so much time that you don't actually save time over just writing it yourself. That is why I continue to maintain that LLMs are not a useful tool: either you completely give up on quality to get speed gains, or you maintain quality but get no speed gains.
- preg_match 4d agoYou definitely save a ton of time over writing it yourself, just not as much time saved as “agentic” coding. I don’t do agentic coding either, I think it’s basically a scam. But using an LLM does mean creating stuff faster, much faster. The LLM can write 500 lines of code in seconds. That takes me hours. I still design the APIs, the system, the tests. But the specific implementation of functions, I am freed from. There is a large speed gain there.
- Chris2048 4d agoA calculator does no design or review, so what exactly is the llm being used for, no metaphors or riddles please. because to me this: "Something simple like adding reactions, adding read receipts ... The LLM easily excels at the task and yet I didn’t have to do it." Implies to me code gen. That aside, are you a 'DidntUseIt' sockpuppet, given there are lots of green accounts responding on their behalf..