Hacker News: iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=iqpHacker News RSShttps://hnrss.org/hnrss v2.1.1Wed, 06 May 2026 15:08:02 +0000<![CDATA[New comment by iqp in "Why most product tours get skipped"]]>New users are probably the only ones who really need guided product tours. If I'm a longtime existing user I'm far less likely to be interested in a guided tour.

]]>Wed, 06 May 2026 00:03:25 +0000https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48030453iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48030453https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48030453<![CDATA[New comment by iqp in "Write some software, give it away for free"]]>Happened to me too! Guy posted asking kinda rudely whether I was going to fix a bug. Told him I'd be happy to accept a PR for a fix. Never got a PR (project has been dead for some years now - just lost interest).

]]>Tue, 05 May 2026 23:03:23 +0000https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48029917iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48029917https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48029917<![CDATA[New comment by iqp in "David Silver of DeepMind raises $1B to build AI that learns without human data"]]>> the only industry that will matter going forward is this one (fair enough I guess)

Housing, healthcare, and food production all spring to mind as industries that matter waaaay more than AI! (≧ᗜ≦)

]]>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 05:23:07 +0000https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47930674iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47930674https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47930674<![CDATA[New comment by iqp in "I started programming when I was 7. I'm 50 now and the thing I loved has changed"]]>^ This. People bemoan the death of coding, but easily 80%+ of the code I've written commercially was just CRUD or ETL shite. I've done a few interesting things (a formula parser, a WYSWIG survey builder for signature pads, a navigation controller for line-guided industrial vehicles, etc.) but yeah, don't miss writing reams of boilerplate. I always tried to take a Kent Beck inspired Smalltalk/TDD inspired approach to the code I wrote and took pride in my work, but ultimately you're working in a shitty corporate environment where none of your colleagues cares because they're burning at both ends, the management only does lip service to Quality, and Deadlines and the Bottom Line are Everything. If LLMs make this shit more bearable then bring 'em on, I say!

]]>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 05:40:34 +0000https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46971288iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46971288https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46971288<![CDATA[New comment by iqp in "Is coding dead because AI has taken over it?"]]>Ask 10 people & you'll get 10 different answers :D. Here's mine: I don't think software development jobs are going to disappear, even though the amount of hand-written code will in all likelihood decline. Those employing s/w devs are just going to expect more output. Until recently most smaller teams wouldn't even attempt more ambitious projects due to worry they'd blow it (yes, the uncomfortable reality is that most s/w projects fail). Now, they're getting braver since LLMs are essentially a RAD tool, and I'd argue that's a good thing.

I've been a professional dev for 20 years, and done plenty of solo projects, but also worked on teams at small & large firms. Even when we were able to build good products, the amount of man-hours sunk into those products often meant they weren't profitable. One of my former bosses made the whole s/w dev dept. gather int the cafeteria one day & ranted at us that he's spent 6 million Euros paying software developers but our products aren't selling, and he doesn't understand why we take so long to build basic products. That boss left shortly thereafter & the company was restructured, but in a way, he wasn't wrong. I can imagine that had we had LLMs things might've turned out differently, but who knows.

]]>Wed, 28 Jan 2026 03:51:12 +0000https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790847iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790847https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790847<![CDATA[New comment by iqp in "What *is* code? (2015)"]]>Beautifully written, a joy to read but, sadly, it feels like something from a bygone era. Nobody chants "Developers! Developers! Developers!" anymore now that everything is dominated by AI, and the joy of coding is gone too. People like Steve Yegge, who I used to aspire to be like back in 2006, when I started my career as a developer, now writes about how he uses 10+ concurrent LLM agents to code, review, and ship & doesn't even bother to even look at the code being produced anymore. Just today, I implemented 2 features using Cursor & GPT-5.1 Codex-Max & I didn't have to write a single line of code myself. But it felt wrong. It makes me think, "What am I even doing here - Why not just let the product manager prompt the LLM?".

]]>Wed, 07 Jan 2026 06:29:07 +0000https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46523247iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46523247https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46523247<![CDATA[New comment by iqp in "Europe's night trains are on track for a resurgence"]]>I understand, no disrespect meant to Poland - I've edited my answer to not sound disrespectful. My grandfather on my mother's side was Polish. It was just an awful trip. I guess I had built up this romantic idea in my head about night trains, but the reality is that the they are extremely noisy, so you should at least pack some earplugs. Also, the security warnings by the train staff made me nervous.

]]>Tue, 15 Dec 2020 09:32:35 +0000https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25428552iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25428552https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25428552<![CDATA[New comment by iqp in "Europe's night trains are on track for a resurgence"]]>I was on a night train of ÖBB (Austrian rail) from Vienna to Berlin last summer, and unfortunately it was not very pleasant. When we got on the train, one of the staff told us to keep our belongings safely stowed within the interior of the compartment, far from the windows and door. Also, he advised us to keep the compartment door locked at all times. The train stopped in Prague for hours, during which time the station announcements kept me awake (they are really loud!). Then, when travelling through Poland, the train hooted every couple minutes when it approached a railway crossing. I ended up getting maybe 2 hours of sleep on the whole trip and my body was aching the next day. Never again!

]]>Tue, 15 Dec 2020 09:13:06 +0000https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25428457iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25428457https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25428457<![CDATA[New comment by iqp in "I miss Microsoft Encarta (2019)"]]>My rural primary school got a Pentium PC with Encarta in 1996. It was placed in the library. I remember Encarta was on like 5 CDs, which the librarian kept under lock and key. You had to put your name down to book a 30 minute slot to use the PC, and take out the Encarta CDs on loan. It was a mission, and the whole time the librarian, a stern-faced woman in her mid 40s, would be standing behind you, arms folded, watching you warily lest you misused or damaged the sacred Encarta CDs. Fun times.

]]>Tue, 20 Oct 2020 12:08:19 +0000https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24836372iqphttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24836372https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24836372