HN user

harper

719 karma

Harper Reed

  harper.blog - my blog

  harper.lol - my website

  harper@modest.com - my email (email me!)
[ my public key: https://keybase.io/harper; my proof: https://keybase.io/harper/sigs/gC1DBHuRiae1my0f0LaXWQETcCQqDrQ-mxZ_Rd8zRvY ]

https://tkmx.odio.dev/user/harper

Posts22
Comments84
View on HN
harper.blog 3mo ago

I turned 600 meetings transcripts into a obsidian knowledge graph

harper
4pts1
2389.ai 3mo ago

We Built a Language for AI Pipelines

harper
4pts0
twitter.com 3y ago

Asked GPT3 to write all necessary Ruby on Rails functions to build a Yelp clone

harper
22pts11
zooooom.us 6y ago

Zooooom.us – A screen saver for these anxious times

harper
1pts0
github.com 6y ago

Self-hosted, super simple photo stream

harper
166pts57
techblog.netflix.com 10y ago

Sleepy Puppy – XSS Payload Management for Web Application Security Testing

harper
1pts0
medium.com 11y ago

(Science) Fiction and Design

harper
2pts0
gigaom.com 12y ago

Prismatic wants to build a social network around all of your interests

harper
17pts13
getprismatic.com 13y ago

Prismatic creates a special signup for Google reader users

harper
77pts59
blog.getprismatic.com 13y ago

Graph: Abstractions for Structured Computation

harper
143pts48
www.techstars.com 13y ago

Chicago's Excelerate Labs is now TechStars Chicago

harper
2pts0
wizard.evanmiller.org 13y ago

Wizard for Mac - a tool for statistics and data analysis

harper
92pts34
www.dylanreed.com 14y ago

Pure Creation is Hard

harper
2pts0
scottvdp.com 15y ago

This is how startups should be made.

harper
21pts9
spreadsheets.google.com 15y ago

A spreadsheet of almost all the 2011 SXSW attendees

harper
13pts6
flowingdata.com 15y ago

Google opens up Public Data Explorer to your data

harper
2pts0
www.thedailyswarm.com 15y ago

Chris Holmes' Privateer Manifesto: Can It Save Music?

harper
4pts0
www.exceleratelabs.com 15y ago

Chicago based Excelerate 2011 accelerator is accepting applications

harper
5pts1
isc.sans.edu 15y ago

Google Chrome and (weird) DNS requests

harper
2pts0
www.nata2.org 15y ago

using GAE and DryDrop to host static sites for free

harper
57pts24
blog.everyblock.com 15y ago

Everyblock.com releases an API

harper
36pts1
news.ycombinator.com 16y ago

Hacker News Chicago meetup Thursday (1/21) at 7pm

harper
23pts17

the prompts are generated from the planning steps. If you were to follow the prompts in the planning phase, you would get output that is clearly the "starting prompt"

that is the first thing you send to aider.

also - there was a joke below, but you can do --yes-always and it will not ask for confirmation. I find it does a pretty good job.

Yea - i have had OK luck with the architect mode. but was using that as part of this (using deepseek for reasoning) and it good. but oh so slow.

Ultimately, i would love to just use one tool

in my experience, there is quite a spectrum of legacy code.

Legacy modern code would be anything from the last 5-10 years. Vintage Pioneer code (which i have both initialized, and maintained) is more than 20 years old.

I am trying not to be a vintage pioneer these days.

the speed is way faster. I am a good programmer with more than 25 years of professional experience. The AI is a better programmer in every way. Why do it myself when i can outsource it and play cookie clicker?

The real thing that sold me is the entire workflow takes 10 minutes to plan, and then 10-15 minutes to execute (let's say a python script of medium complexity). after a solid ~20-30 min I am largely done. no debugging necessary.

it would have taken me an hour or two to do the same script.

this means i can spend a lot more time with the fam, hacking on more things, and messing about.

I actually think it is going to be way worse than you are suggesting. I think that the LLM codegen is going to replace most if not all of software eng workflow and teams that we see today.

Software is going to be prompt wrangling with some acceptance testing. Then just prompt wrangling.

I don't have a lot of hope for the software profession to survive.

i really wanted to use DSPy to generate prompts, but it wasn't quite as compatible with my workflow as i wanted. I love the idea tho - code instead of strings.

i will dig in again. It is an exciting idea.

I added it because of the apple prompts! I figured it is worth a try. The results are good, but i did not test it extensively

most of this is aider / codegen:

Total tokens in: 26,729,994 Total tokens out: 1,553,284

Last month anthropic bill was $89.30

--

I want to program with a team, together. not a group of people individually coding with an agent, and then managing merges. I have been playing a lot with merging team context - but haven't gotten too far yet.

I also run visionect locally to power a couple of displays around the house. When I recently went to go buy a few more - it was clear that they require a subscription. I emailed them and they confirmed that they now require a subscription.

It’s a bummer because I don’t think there are as good quality displays to replace visionect with, but the subscription was far too much.

I have 4 memories that keep sticking out about bob. I shared them on twitter - but I will share them here with a bit more color. They are a bit different cuz they are not really engineering related, but will give you some idea of his character and how he interacted with folks:

1) when I was CTO of the Obama Campaign I was scared and lost. bob helped me so much. helped me be a better CTO. helped me sell a lot of weird shit to people who didn't want to buy (i.e. tech). and helped us use square. it was always so much fun. He was a very strong guiding force.

Once, when he came to chicago to help with the square integration for OFA, we all went out clubbing and it go so crazy. (I think) he lost his laptop. randy reddig and him both lost a bunch of their stuff. I remember he stayed out all night partying with people who he didn't know. I still have DJ friends who mention "whatever happened to that square guy who was so much fun. "

towards the end of the campaign he schooled me on how to run a better interview program. helped me design the interview strategy we had at modest (which I am really proud of). he reminded me that you can be ethical, gracious and flexible - and still hire great people. no need to be a dick. be positive

2) my friend Derek broox and I went clubbing in the early 2000s. we went to a metallica show with vivid entertainment (wild times) and Derek took this photo of the metallica show. for some reason we uploaded the photos to my flickr account. metallica found the photo and used it in their death magnetic album cover. they credited me and not Derek. (More details here - https://derek.broox.com/blog/do-i-sue-metallica-or-do-i-sue-...)

anyway. Years and years pass and Metallica is like "whoops" and invites both of us to see Metallica at this super small venue in Iowa. I told bob about it and he introduced me to Lars. Lol. Of course bob knows Lars and is just going to introduce me.

3) last week bob calls me at 7am chicago time. I am in bed. he calls me on FaceTime like a mad person. no heads up. just facetimes me. lol.

He was hanging out with Lee Foss and wanted to make sure we connected (lee is from chicago and we have a lot of mutuals). Bob was like "you guys are both awesome!"

4)

One time in the 2010s we were going to some benefit party at a club in SF. We show up and the door guy told us that it was going to be 25 bucks to get it. Or 5 bucks but we had to ditch our clothes and be in our underwear. Bob and I immediately choose the 5 dollars option without saying anything. Just immediately took off our pants. It just made sense. It was a great party and really fun.

---

Bob was a tremendous mentor to me. He helped me when I was a baby cto (at the Obama campaign lol) and helped me when I was a baby ceo. He was one of the bright stars out there who helped make sure the world was better. I am pretty cynical about technology and our industry - bob was an exception. Without bob, I wouldn't be who I am today. The best part is that I know dozens of people who would say the same thing. His impact is wide and weird.

I wouldn't say I know his values, but I watched his actions: - he was always generous with his time, and his connections - he was always up for an adventure - and even when we had no pants on in a club, he was giving me advice on how to make sure my company was more successful, make sure my teams were properly fed, and make sure I was taking care of myself

I am going to miss that guy