It's called Ostrich effect and we all do it. You enjoy toying with your own idea so much, that your brain shields you from the pain of finding out it already exists. Deep down you know it probably exists. It's harmless, unless there's other people's time and money involved.

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latexr 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> You enjoy toying with your own idea so much, that your brain shields you from the pain of finding out it already exists.

Doesn’t look like the author toyed with the idea at all, though, apart from having it in their head. Considering how they describe themselves (Check the About/Home page), if they had toyed with it at all they would have already built it.

I also don’t see why finding out it exists would be “painful”. The game is free and the author didn’t experiment or learn anything from building it, they just prompted it in one go.

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versteegen 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think you misunderstand what was meant by "toying with your own idea" here. I interpret it as daydreaming about it.

	▲	latexr an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> I interpret it as daydreaming about it. Which is why I said: > apart from having it in their head. But if that’s all you’re doing, there’s no “pain” from finding out it exists. On the contrary, there is plenty of room for joy.

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josefrichter 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah "toying" as in "entertaining the idea" in any form or shape.

And I disagree that the author didn't get anything from it. There's a ton to glean, it was probably fun, and many HN readers enjoyed the post.

	▲	latexr an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> And I disagree that the author didn't get anything from it. Those were not my words. Clearly they got a game out of it. What I said was they: > didn’t experiment or learn anything from building it Which is unambiguously true. There was no experimentation and no learning. There was one prompt and one result. > and many HN readers enjoyed the post. That’s entirely orthogonal.