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Comment by darkwater | Hacker News Reader

> Previously, I'd have an idea, sit on it for a while.

> With agentic development, I have an idea, waste a few hours chasing it,

What's the difference between these 2 periods? Weren't you wasting time when sitting on it and thinking about your idea?

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Sitting on an idea doesn’t have to mean literally sitting and staring at the ceiling, thinking about it. It means you have an idea and let it stew for a while, your mind coming back to it on its own while you’re taking a shower, doing the dishes, going for a walk… The idea which never comes back is the one you abandon and would’ve been a waste of time to pursue. The idea which continues to be interesting and popping into your head is the worthwhile one.

When you jump straight into execution because it’s easy to do so, you lose the distinction.

They for sure weren't vaporating hundreds of litres of water and wasting a bunch of electricity while doing it

Sitting on an idea doesn't necessarily mean being inactive. You can think at the same time as doing something else. "Shower thoughts" are often born of that process.

I know, and letting an agent/LLM "think" about some ideas does not waste your time either. Yes, it "wastes" energy and you need to read and think about the results after, we don't have neural interfaces to computer, so the inner thinking feedback loop will always be faster. But I keep thinking GP comment was unfair: you can just have your idea in the background to check whether it is good or not exactly the same, and after that time "discuss" it with an LLM, or ask it to implement the idea because you think it's solid enough. It's a false dichotomy.

It's not a complaint about LLMs, it's a complaint about my own behaviour. Maybe I didn't make that clear enough.

Maybe like one of the siblings said, I just shouldn't jump right into execution even if that barrier has been lowered. But it sure is tempting for me.

I understand you, and I felt the same for a few days: the dopamine rush was hitting hard. You just need to control it (with a very big "just"), like any other dopamine rush.

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