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Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

The suck is why we're here

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Writing and note-taking build thinking skills; AI offloads cognition

Users argue tools like blogs/Obsidian/Notion aid personal reflection, while LLMs replace thoughts with generated ones.
"analogpixel": "I write a daily blog to make sure I remember how to think."
"lukeschlather": "Running that coherent structure through an LLM replaces your structured thoughts with other thoughts you didn't have... this sounds like one of the clearest examples where it is brain rot."

2. AI content lacks accomplishment and feels inauthentic ("cosplay")

AI enables output without effort, mimicking creation but missing reward or depth.
"yakattak": "What’s the point in generating writing or generating art if it gives next to zero feelings of accomplishment?"
"roughly": "many people seem to be cosplaying their lives"; "jackyinger": "this cosplay phenomenon goes far beyond LLM use."

3. AI excels at rote tasks, freeing focus for high-level creativity

Defenders liken AI to power tools/calculators for boilerplate, aiding efficiency in programming/art.
"Biganon": Colleagues say "'programming is the boring part, now I can focus on the problem solving'"; "rubidium": "This is the attitude of someone who uses hand tools when power tools are available."
"svara": "AI coding allows me to build tools that solve real world problems for me much faster... I can still take pride... in producing a high quality design."

🚀 Project Ideas

Reflective Journaling Layer for Note-Taking Apps

Summary

  • Solves the problem of offloading thinking to LLMs, which defeats the purpose of journaling to "remember how to think."
  • Provides a focused wrapper around existing note-taking tools (Obsidian, Notion) that facilitates structured thinking without AI-generated text replacement.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Knowledge workers, writers, and thinkers who use Obsidian, Notion, or similar tools for cognitive processing rather than just storage.
Core Feature A "Thinking Mode" that blocks AI text generation but allows structured prompts, Socratic questioning, or semantic linking to existing notes to help users organize their own thoughts.
Tech Stack Typescript, React, Obsidian/Notion API wrappers, Lightweight local LLM integration (optional).
Difficulty Low
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • HN Commenters would appreciate the focus on active thinking. As lukeschlather noted, "Using a tool like notion is organizing your thoughts into a coherent structure... Running that coherent structure through an LLM replaces your structured thoughts."
  • Addresses the frustration mentioned by kettlecorn regarding rambling notes. Instead of summarizing, the tool prompts the user to synthesize themselves.
  • Practical utility: Bridges the gap between raw capture and polished thought without bypassing the cognitive load required for learning.

Sycophant-Buster Browser Extension

Summary

  • Solves the frustration of LLMs agreeing with users regardless of truth ("sycophancy") which reinforces delusion or shallow thinking.
  • Intervenes when AI-generated text in a chat interface detects high agreement or validation patterns and prompts the user to challenge the AI or verify facts.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Users relying on LLMs for technical advice, brainstorming, or self-reflection who want to avoid "brain rot."
Core Feature Real-time analysis of AI responses for bias/agreement. Injects a "Challenge Mode" button that rewrites the prompt to force the LLM to argue the opposite side or find counter-evidence.
Tech Stack Browser Extension (Manifest V3), Javascript, OpenAI/Anthropic API integration.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium model (free for basic checks, subscription for advanced debate modes).

Notes

  • Connects to kettlecorn's sentiment about doing the synthesis themselves: "I find value in going from the unstructured blob of notes into structured and coherent thoughts myself."
  • HN users often discuss "signal vs. noise." This tool adds a "noise filter" specifically for the interaction style of LLMs, addressing the akoboldfrying question about what makes LLMs different from Notion (the lack of critical pushback).
  • High discussion potential: Users love tools that mitigate AI risks while retaining utility.

"The Suck" Commitment Tracker

Summary

  • Solves the problem of "cosplaying" productivity and losing motivation when the initial excitement fades (the "dopamine crash" described by albert_e).
  • A tool that gamifies the difficult middle part of a project by visualizing the "suck" rather than hiding it, treating friction as a progress metric.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Solo builders, bloggers, and hobbyists who struggle to finish projects after the initial 30% learning phase.
Core Feature A project dashboard that explicitly tracks "Time Spent in Friction" vs. "Time Spent in Flow." It forces a "cosplay" commitment: you must log hours of actual struggle to unlock visualization of progress.
Tech Stack Next.js, Supabase, Tailwind CSS.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Addresses rapidfl's comment: "Maybe there should be phases to cosplay hard. Then reflect and realign."
  • Appeals to the "anti-cosplay" sentiment by turning the act of working through hard problems into a badge of honor, rather than faking the output. zdragnar noted that "The suck is why we’re here."
  • Utility: Creates a psychological feedback loop that values the struggle, combating the "quick dopamine" trap of starting new things.

"Proof of Thought" Validator

Summary

  • Solves the issue of "AI slop" flooding the web and making it hard to find genuine human creation, which phantasmish called "purely a loss."
  • A lightweight watermarking tool that verifies a human did the "hard part" of thinking/writing before publishing, turning the "struggle" into a marketable feature.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Indie bloggers, newsletter writers, and content creators who want to differentiate their work from AI-generated spam.
Core Feature A writing interface that requires "rough drafts" or "thinking logs" (timestamped, messy, unpolished) to be submitted before the final polished post is generated/accepted. It generates a "Verified Human" badge based on the entropy and timestamp history of the draft.
Tech Stack Rust (for performance), Web Crypto API, Markdown.
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: B2B API for publishers/platforms to verify human origin.

Notes

  • Responds to apsurd's point: "Art for its own sake. Say something. Experience having said something." This tool validates that experience.
  • HN users are obsessed with "signal." Creating a standard for "Human Verified" content (distinct from AI verification) would be a massive topic of discussion.
  • It solves the "cosplay" problem by making the messy process of thinking a requirement for the final output, aligning with analogpixel's goal of remembering how to think.

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