Everything I want to make is new. I don't understand the objection.

For example, the photo backup system I want to make will let me manage my ~400gb photo library. I want my library backed up on a couple devices, running linux and freebsd. I want my mac and iphone to have a local mirror of all the favorited photos, and when I'm at home, I want to be able to browse all photos from those devices by streaming them over the local network. I want native macos & ios app interfaces to view and manage all that.

I don't know any existing software that meets my requirements. I don't think any such software exists. Apple, Dropbox and Google will solve this problem for me if I store all my photos in their cloud and pay them an ongoing subscription for the privilege. I'd much rather make something myself, and back up my photos on my own hard drives.

Making something like this is simple enough, but very time consuming. If claude can take the drudgery out of it, well, I think that's just delightful.

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cryo32 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What's your time and life worth? You pay Apple to deal with it (which I do) and get to live a peaceful life and go out and take photos and have experiences. Or do you spend weeks implementing your own solution with Claude. The latter is considerably higher cost in time and money.

AI is seen as a way out of drudgery but you're just trading one problem for another.

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satvikpendem 5 hours ago | parent [-]

The implementation is part of the fun.

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ori_b 5 hours ago | parent [-]

So why would you buy it off of Anthropic?

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duckmysick 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In any activity you can take shortcuts that makes it easier. It's up to you how many (if any) you want.

Take woodworking for example. When I build a kitchen cabinet, I can get lumber that's already smooth and treated, I can buy drawer tracks, I can use power tools instead of a handsaw and a screwdriver, I can use a pocket hole jig to make joints easier. I still have to do more planning and assembling than with the Ikea cabinet, which also takes more work than having a contractor do everything for me.

I'm doing it my way because it's fun for me. Other people might enjoy other parts of the process - or different things altogether.

There's a whole spectrum between doing everything from scratch and paying someone to have it done for you.

	▲	an hour ago \| parent [-]
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satvikpendem 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't understand the question. For one thing I use local models mainly, but even if I didn't, I'd be buying the tokens from cloud model providers, not the prepackaged, fully complete software itself. I buy the tokens to make what I want.

It's actually quite similar to buying the services of a programmer off Upwork to build something for me, only with LLMs it's way cheaper and faster, with a shorter feedback loop.

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slopinthebag an hour ago | parent [-]

I think their point is that you aren't really doing the implementing, Claude (or any model really) is. If you genuinely find prompting LLMs to be fun, then by all means go for it.

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satvikpendem 33 minutes ago | parent [-]

What I find fun is getting the output to exactly what I want. I don't care whether I'm personally implementing something or not, and that's what many in this thread seem not to understand.

	▲	unknownfuture 30 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I'm just gonna hop in and say: I get it. If I spend a weekend standing up a self-hosted media system or something, I doubt anyone would dispute that's a fun building exercise. If I do the same thing but use an LLM to build out instead, somehow it's not. Yeah it's not the same kind of building as what we might have done pre-LLM but it need not be any less satisfying or rewarding. The real disconnect seems to be the classic dichotomy: people who see coding as the point and the purpose, vs people who just want an outcome. And that's fine! I'm just don't understand why the one camp feels the need to deride the other.

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unknownfuture 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Interesting that you think building is just coding.

What do you think architects do? Or interior designers? Or civil engineers?

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ori_b an hour ago | parent [-]

Interesting that you think coding just typing. Code is just a language where the problem is specified in fine detail; the biggest value proposition of an LLM is being able to hand-wave and let some other tool take care of guessing at detail, where you can't be bothered to specify it in full. And, part of the process of specifying in full forces you to rethink design assumptions.

Architecture certainly isn't building, and neither is interior design. Civil engineers calculate and specify the loads in excruciating detail, because if they didn't, people would die.

	▲	unknownfuture 20 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		No, coding is the act of reifying all the things that actually matter--the requirements, the visual design, the system design, etc--into a form that a computer can execute. The biggest value proposition of an LLM is being able to focus on the truly high-value activities while allowing the machine take care of much of that reification. That you think architecture or interior design isn't building tells you prefer to downplay or devalue any work that isn't hands on construction. It's an interesting perspective, but it's one I'll never be able to understand or agree with.
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uncognic 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Take a look at https://immich.app/

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righthand 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Ente photos is one thing and there are others.

You can accomplish most of that by installing Syncthing.

But the objection is that you’re not really building anything new even if you think it’s a new idea. By your definition you’re building for yourself and not sharing…so what good are your little projects. Reading your original list it just seems like you want to build and run software without having to do any research, even if a solution already exists.