Hey - OP here. I've been working on Ride with GPS since 2006 (!) and the game we've built is the most fun I've had in a long time. We're launching in PDX and if that is a success, we'll double down on it and roll it out to a bunch more cities. I want to do everything I can to stack the deck in our favor since I believe in this project.
I put together this landing page start to finish yesterday (thanks claude/grok), and am hoping it's effective in generating some initial interest. Looking for any feedback you have, small/large, however blunt, to dial it in and make it work for us.
We are the world's best library of bike routes, and we enable cyclists to go on better rides, more often. We have a website and mobile apps that allow people to discover the best riding in their area, and get turn by turn navigation using either our mobile apps or the bike computer of their choosing. Come join us in taking Ride with GPS to the next level!
Senior Software Engineer - iOS Development: We have a technically interesting, battery efficient app that offers a full-featured bike computer (ride recording, & route navigation), a route planning tool, as well as ride management, analysis, and more. We're looking for a talented iOS engineer to help us take what we've done to the next level.
I'll add to the sibling comment and say I've been writing software for money for 25+ years, have a CS degree, and have found immense leverage with these tools. I put in the time on hobby projects over the past couple years to figure out how best to integrate it all into my work, and now I'm in a place where it's saving me significant amounts of time every time I produce code, and I'm getting the quality of results the project demands. I use gemini-2.5-pro, claude-4-sonnet, and o3 for different purposes, and have a variety of techniques to avoid pitfalls and get the results I'm looking for. There are a lot of ways to unsatisfactory results, but it's possible to get usable results that save time. I've shared my enthusiasm and seen other devs dabble, get poor results, and go back to their practiced methods of writing software–so I'm not surprised to see so many skeptics and naysayers. It isn't easy or obvious how to make this stuff work for you in larger codebases and for meatier problems. That doesn't mean it's impossible, and it doesn't mean it's not worth it to climb the learning curve. As the models and tools get better, it's getting a lot easier, so I suspect we'll see the number of people denying the utility of LLM-generated code to shrink. Personally, I'd rather be reaping the benefits as early as possible, because I can get more stuff done faster and more pleasantly.
If you're using org-mode and thinking about customizing it a bit more, and/or would like it to serve you in a way that is a bit more aligned with GTD, this reference from Bernt Hansen is without peer and just an incredible contribution: https://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html
I've used or built more personal knowledge/task/project management tools than I care to list over the years, and adopted various methods along the way. I've ended up in a place where I know what I need day to day: A place to dump my ideas, plans, reflections, and tasks, along with methods of processing and accessing all this data. It's hard to compete with plain text files, a notebook, and structured daily/weekly rituals that process these notes into actionable tasks, meeting agendas, and project docs. It's not that time consuming, it's super effective, and most importantly, it's infinitely and freely customizable because instead of software, you just have checklists and processes to manually follow. You can execute GTD without touching a computer: https://gettingthingsdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Wee...
I can get by just fine with that system, but a handful of months back I started wanting software again. Reminders, task wrangling, workflows around taking meeting notes, taking and processing transcripts of talking through ideas, automated daily and weekly checkins with summaries, project work logs, managing lists of things to talk about with people, the list goes on....
Same reasons I have always reached for software, and the same reasons I wrote my own system a few times over. But this time I had some new thoughts:
- I want this to have a chance at being my last system. For that, I must be able to read/edit the data without special software. I settled on committing to building software that interfaces with folders of Markdown files exclusively. I could use Obsidian to cover any gaps and get work done immediately–I don't need my software to do it all right away.
- I want to own as much of my recorded activity/thoughts as possible, so I can drop it into new AI models, giving them a ton of context about me and what I'm up to, and avoid getting vendor locked to OpenAI.
- I want ubiquitous access to the system, which means it's gotta be easily used from a phone.
7k LOC later and I've got a Telegram bot with a plugin architecture and a pile of plugins that implement everything I've described and more. The plugin arch means there's a defined interface and every new piece of functionality never ends up with more than 1k LOC in a file. My objective was to structure the project specifically so I could avoid the pitfalls of AI generated code as projects get large. Everything isolated with well defined integration points.
I chose Telegram because they have a great API, supporting custom keyboards for quick actions, audio input for taking voice memos that my system transcribes, and reaching out to me with reminders/requests on whatever device I'm on.
The result is thousands of messages that have translated into a nicely organized Obsidian vault. Couldn't be happier and think there's a chance I'll live with this thing for the foreseeable future–and I can always swap out the interface away from Telegram, build a proper frontend, or drop it altogether and be left with my Markdown files.
If anyone is interested I'd be happy to share what I've got. Just my private project that I'm reaping a lot of benefit from.
Wow, this actually sounds quite neat. I'm already using markdown and being able to make my notes more interactive and useful via chat-like interface with automations would be great. Especially as I want to use AI systems on top to make the accumulated knowledge as useful as possible. Please share more
Ray Kurzweil has laid out a view on the future that has always been interesting and is feeling increasingly relevant. Incredibly, his prediction for AGI in 2029 seems... conservative? It's too bad this article refers to him as a "former Google engineer" and only bothers to cite a Youtuber talking about his books. He's a fascinating character, has been a prescient futurist for many decades, and his books are very readable - check them out! His big 3 are The Age of Intelligent Machines, The Age of Spiritual Machines, and The Singularity is Near. The last one is the most recent and popular, and is what I'd point people towards.
We're a small but very strong team (28 of us) helping people have a better time on their bikes. Specializing in route planning & ride recording (with an established website and popular app), we work closely with individual riders, clubs, events, tour companies, and more.
Currently looking for a strong dev for Frontend Web (mostly React).
We work reasonable hours, have great benefits, love solving problems for our customers, go on bike rides and encourage each other to live healthy happy lives. It's a really nice working environment with a cool product and customer.
Please inquire for more info: careers@ridewithgps.com
I heard Schmidt on a couple podcasts[1][2] recently promoting this book, and I found them to be useful for understanding how AI is being discussed among the political and leadership class. I was surprised to see all the negativity here - I thought he made some interesting points, and I appreciated getting some insight into how decision-makers are thinking about this in terms of regulation and geopolitical risks.
I understand the points being made, it's just not what I choose to focus on in the very limited time I'm going to spend engaging with this material. The purpose of my comment was to let any other tech-focused visitors to this site know that I did find some value on the periphery of this book, in case they are equally uninterested in hearing everyone's hot takes on a 98 year old who's already had books written about his life's negative impacts.
Forgive me for not thinking that some unflattering books are a suitable consequence for the "negative impacts" that Kissinger has had on millions of people across the globe
You could say that about a lot of US officials. This obsession with Kissinger is amazing. Do we plan to indict Gorbachev for the Afghanistan invasion ?
At least Andrzej Rosiewicz gave Gorbachev the credit he deserves by performing "Wieje wiosna od wschodu" in front of Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev in 1988, a song which Nina Hagen also performed a rapping cover of, which is far better than any song ever written about Henry Kissinger:
Agree that the obsession with Kissinger is quite funny. He's not even in the top 10 of my personal villains for US foreign policy, but he never led (or commanded someone else who led) an army and can't be guilty of any warcrimes.
He is a state department hack who has a talent for self-promotion as a "grand strategist" even though there is very little that he was responsible for setting in motion, and much of what he worked on was either irrelevant or ended up getting botched. He did, however, claim many foreign policy victories during a time period when U.S. foreign policy was particularly incoherent and schizophrenic, with America often being on both sides of a given conflict as the various organs of US foreign policy fought with each other and coordinated badly.
One can argue that the visit to China was legit his. Pretty much everything else is clearly P.R. and taking credit for the work of others in order to make a name for himself and pad his enormous consulting fees. IIRC, Kissinger and Associates - his private gig to cash in on his grand expertise - now focuses on doing lobbying for China.
Really Kissinger's main crime was "supporting" various wars or coups, which basically every secretary of state does, since there is no war or coup in which the US isn't supporting one side over another. However our actual ability to force coups is quite limited, take for example our repeated attempts to overthrow tiny Nicaragua or Cuba - here with substantial military aid and funds and even some irregular forces, continued for over a decade, yet we were stimied by these tiny nations.
So people see this obvious impotence, build a mental wall around it, and then just assume that everything else that happens in the world is the result of the CIA pulling the strings on direct orders from people like Kissinger - who is the puppet master of the third world.
This ... is not good history.
US power has always been primarily soft power -- cultural and economic power. We can threaten to cut off aid, impose sanctions, pay bribes, etc. But most coups that that are "US backed" would have succeeded with no actual backing, and often the backing consisted of side payments and giving a greenlight to not impose sanctions on the coup plotters. This was actually what Hussein claimed, that he was given a green light by Rumsfeld. It's only for truly weak and unpopular regimes, or states undergoing existing legitimacy crises, that foreign meddling can be a difference maker.
Meanwhile, those times when the U.S. actually launches invasions of places -- Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo/Serbia, etc. are somehow discounted. Yeah, Kissinger backed violent groups and lobbied to funnel financial and military aid to places that should not have received it, but at the same time he didn't actually lie us into wars, unlike Powell or Albright or even Dean Rusk. IMO these three have much higher body counts, and we are just talking about the post 1960 period in US diplomacy, and haven't even touched things like the Mexican-American war or adventurism or "felling trees and indians". It's just bizarre how much focus Kissinger has gotten, and I really do attribute it to self-promotion.
I refuse to read any books written by people that eat meat. Killing living things is a crime, and supporting the industries involved in that is immoral.
Because this is the HN crowd, I cannot tell if you're serious ("not only do I not support war criminals, I don't support animal murderers") or being snarky. If you're serious, you should also stop using software written by meat eaters, that way none of us sane folks have to read your comments.
I really do believe eating meat is wrong. I don't decide what books to read based on my personal ethical beliefs, especially when it has nothing to do with the subject at hand.
Sorry for the subtlety, I'll remind myself of readers like you in the future.
I apologize as well for the invective tone; I was a little cranky earlier in the day when I responded to this. I have no problem with your beliefs re: meat, the subtlety did indeed go over my head, and this just seems like a textbook case of textual communication fundamentally dampening nuance.
Sometimes I find myself reacting sharply to things in a way that I'd rather not, which I did in this case. My stance on animal rights is an easy button to push to get a majority riled up, and I regretfully reach for it in my worst moments. I was also feeling cranky this morning haha
Seriously, thanks for taking the time to come back to this. You made my night better.
does that all mean that Eric Schmidt is running for office, or is he trying to get into a position of political influence with the Biden administration? (i mean, is it possible that he is using his book as a platform in this effort?)
Well, Biden is trying to improve relations with China and Kissinger is seen as a big friend of China, and he claims to have some influence with the top brass there (China made a big turn towards the west, and Kissingers meetings with Zhou Enlai played some role in it - Mao shaking hands with Nixon was a very big deal in 1971), so there is some alignment ; on the other hand you have a point, Democrats seem to have a very strong negative reaction towards Kissinger.
This looks like a herculean effort over just the past few months. Congratulations on hitting this milestone and hopefully you can take a breather and tie up loose ends at a more comfortable pace. As much as HN has changed over the years I still think this is a place where there are a lot of people who can appreciate how you feel right now. Nicely done!
Thanks. This was definitely the hardest project I've worked on in my life. I fear I may have shaved a few years off my life with all of the all-nighters I pulled with this, so it's good to hear recognition for the work. :)
No deadline. I just have a tendency towards obsession when I'm working on a project I'm very interested in. I tend to get into a kind of manic phase where I can't sleep even if I wanted to. There's no real telling when that phase will end. So I end up coding for an unhealthy amount of time. I don't recommend it to anyone.
I have the same thing, self-diagnosed as monomania. I had to train myself to stop thinking about my obsession when not at it, and the condition eventually subsided enough that it doesn't completely screw up my life anymore.
nb: looking it up on wikipedia, it seems that monomania was a 19th century psychiatric diagnosis, and is no longer considered a real condition.
Agreed! I'm confused by the number of comments that suggest this was a waste of time because other potentially similar implementations exist. There could be a hundred of these and I'd still be interested in looking at them.
Disregard those comments. There will always be critics wondering why you don't just use floppies taped to a carrier pigeon instead of email. We are nerds.
If your concern is that this is additional unneeded syntax that is just going to result in difficult to understand, overly terse code, my 2 cents is that a conversation among your team to discuss these cases and agree on some standards is a pretty straightforward solution. It's not like today's JS has the Python philosophy of "one obvious way to do it".
I'll throw my hat in with those on the sidelines excited for the language we're stuck writing more of than we may want to, getting another piece of syntax that improves the ergonomics in a lot of little cases. Much like destructuring, much like the optional chaining and null coalescing. It will be nice to avoid the occasional temp variable that isn't useful for readability, or to rearrange expressions that read better applied than composed... but mostly I'm looking forward to how much nicer a pipe operator makes iteratively doing something in the console.
I put together this landing page start to finish yesterday (thanks claude/grok), and am hoping it's effective in generating some initial interest. Looking for any feedback you have, small/large, however blunt, to dial it in and make it work for us.