After 10+ years of stewing on an idea, I started building an app (for myself) that I've never had the courage or time to start until now.

I really wanted to learn the coding, the design patterns, etc, but truthfully, it was never gonna happen without a Claude. I could never get past the unknown-unknowns (and I didn't even grasp how broad is the domain of knowledge it actually requires.) Best case I would have started small chunks and abandoned it countless times, piling on defeatism and disappointment each time.

Now in under two weeks of spare time and evenings, I've got a working prototype that's starting to resemble my dream. Does my code smell? Yes. Is it brittle? Almost certainly. Is it a security risk? I hope not. (It's not.)

I want to be intentional about how I use AI; I'm nervous about how it alters how we think and learn. But seeing my little toy out in the real world is flippin incredible.

> Is it a security risk? I hope not. (It's not.)

It very probably is, but if it's a personal project you're not planning on releasing anywhere, it doesn't matter much.

You should still be very cognizant that LLMs will currently fairly reliably implement massive security risks once a project grows beyond a certain size, though.

They can also identify and fix vulnerabilities when prompted. AI is being used heavily by security researchers for this purpose.

It’s really just a case of knowing how to use the tools. Said another way, the risk is being unaware of what the risks are. And awareness can help one get out of the bad habits that create real world issues.

Your heat pump ought to be venting the cold air outside in the first place. If you're pulling the heat for your water out of your conditioned air, yeah you're in a losing battle.

My dentist informed my me adult tooth root resorption (the same process through which baby teeth fall out) is correlated with cat ownership during early childhood.

If Im not mistaken, periods are ignored entirely. I regularly sign up for free trials with variations on first.last@gmail.com, firstlast@gmail.com, f.i.r.s.t.last, etc and they all come to my inbox.

The point still remains, it's not like I get double the healthcare if I increase productivity.

I've done the same as bartender or wedding photographer. There really is something to being integral, but not the focus of attention.

I'm tempted to try this experiment, but I get stuck at "what if my list of 100 things is subconsciously skewed by ads I'm already seeing?"

It's the ads I'm seeing, but aren't registering on a conscious level that concern me. I think we see far more ads than we are aware of.

That's where the "randomly choose 50" comes in. Even if your initial list of 100 topics was biased, randomly picking from that list allows you to do a comparison between topics that got randomly picked vs ones that didn't. In other words, a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard in experiments. If the group that got randomly picked got a 40% hit rate (ie. that corresponded to ads), but group that didn't randomly get picked got 41%, then you can probably conclude they're not listening to you, even if a 40% hit rate seems spooky. On the other hand if there were significant differences (eg. 40% vs 20%), then there might be other stuff going on worth investigating.

I both love and am horrified by this answer. What if the airport grade tar was there all along?

The other wild thing is I was severely out of town, the ad was very local but way too uncomfortably relevant.

I would not at all be surprised if they are listening. But isn't a simpler explanation that your in-law was googling driveway options, clicked through a link to see what the heck airport grad tar even is, and then google saw you were in the same vicinity and guessed you'd have similar interests? I wonder how many other ads you had in common that week, or if he saw ads for the underwater basket weaving course you purchased, etc.

That still raises the question of HOW because I never used their Wi-Fi neither has my wife. So Nest uniquely identified my voice, captured the conversation and told Facebook I must want airport grade tar?

This is an excellent point. Especially because we often ascribe morality to hard work.

I don't. One of the largest holders of US debt is US citizens' investment and retirement accounts. It's a win-win situation