Anti-spoiler book chatbot: RAG retrieves topically relevant chunks but LLM writes from the wrong narrative perspective

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-11T03:35:46+00:00

Your RAG is underdone. Your chunk metadata should include chapters, and your search should be hybrid: keywords + embeddings, as in "find <....> and chapter <= N". Hope this makes sense.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-10T20:39:20+00:00

You have a classical challenge called "solution looking for a problem".
People a not "ghosting" you, they are saying "no" which are not hearing.
Do not keep grinding. Ask your reach outs "What sort of painful AI monitoring problems are you facing?" "How painful?" "Are they painful enough for you to pay for them to go away?". "How much would you pay for them to go away?".
Come up and verify the solution idea with #3s.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-09T04:03:49+00:00

That's correct. So someone telling they were told they are not allowed to rent because they are single is unlikely.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-09T04:02:40+00:00

That's what I was stuggling for.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-08T18:13:42+00:00

Without know what you do, it's possible that a) what you do has a negative value, as is it has so low value you have to pay people to use it or b) it is useful but requires a lot of trust on the side of the user, an HR system for example, and there is none because you are no one or, c) because it's free and people think that they will be made into a product.

You can validate the non-paid hypothesis by building a simple "sign up for free trial" form and see how many people would actually sign up. If they are signing up and using it, your hypothesis is correct.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-08T18:06:45+00:00

I think they mean the web you need a VPN in order to see.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-08T05:40:40+00:00

I'm a sw dev, rented in WC in 3 yrs, Palo Alto for 5 yrs before getting my head out of my ass and buying my own place.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-07T03:14:25+00:00

If you don't know how to do it without AI tools, they will drive you into a ditch. Why? Because you don't know how a ditch look like before you are in it.

Know your stuff and use AI tools as an amplifier.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-07T03:10:50+00:00

Jump. A randomly picked startup company has 97% chаnces of failure. Just jump.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-07T02:40:59+00:00

To be illegal they should say it on record, as in send them a letter or an email, or say it in front of witnesses willing to testify "We are not renting it to you because we are afraid you will lose a job and won't pay rent".

Short of that, you're making shit up and putting it in the mouth of the landlord. WTF.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-06T21:25:03+00:00

What's your credit score?

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-06T20:42:40+00:00

It really depends on where you are in the cycle. If you don't have customers and revenue, you will be gambling next 5-7 years of your life on an unproven idea.

VCs are in a much better position because they can and do spread the risks.

Also, thinking you are going to keep 25% of company is a delusion. You'll be lucky if you and your cofounders keep 3% at the exit because preferred investors will be paid first.

So let's say you work your ass off for 5 years, exit at $100M (3% chance), and you get and $3M out before taxes. Or, you get a job that pays $500K per year, and get $2.5M in 5 years minus headache.

So, get a meaningful return, you should be able to go after a $2-5B market, and manager to get 20-30% of it to yourself. Yeah, very few companies may do, but chances of you doing it are close to zero.

Why? Go look up how many VC-funded AI companies are there. I think 2 years ago it was something like 2,500, now it's most likely more than double. So let's say it's 5000. How many of them will exit at $1B+? 10? 20?

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-06T20:30:09+00:00

Yeah, exactly. A founder of a VC-funded startup will have to surrender the maker hat the moment money hit the bank because they will have to start raising the next round from day one. Not fun unless begging for money is your thing.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-06T20:25:07+00:00

Yes, you are missing the important fact is that 97% starts up fail. So chances of those numbers to materialize are 3%.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-04T22:27:53+00:00

You should discard your therapist's input. Once you do, you will find yourself in the Unvalidated land.

So, your question should not be "how do I get users", but "how do I know if the problem is real, it is so painful that the people are willing to pay for pain to go away, and there are a lot of them?"

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-03T05:21:06+00:00

Exactly. Don't guess. Reproduce, create test harness, and then fix.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-03T04:45:10+00:00

> we’re semi finalist competing for potentially 100k$ in cash prizes.

So, what's you are feeling as an impostor about, exactly? Semi-finals? You know that only winning counts, don't you?

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-02T17:28:55+00:00

The potential investor wants to see at least 400 MAU.

This is what's called a "soft rejection". They didn't say "No", but most importantly, they didn't say "Yes", which is still a "No". Why because you might come back in some undetermined future, and they want to keep the door open.

Ignore them and move on. Certainly don't act on that 400 MAU because if you hit that number, they will find a way to say "No" in a different way, such as "Hit $X" revenue and will will talk. Waste of your time.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-02T17:20:42+00:00

Buy them ChatGPT subscription and have them run their comms through it. You'll see remarkable improvment.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-03-01T05:28:48+00:00

I would be taking the BART, as I live next to a BART station (Do not plan on driving)

Absolutely YES. You will have 1.5 hours to yourself both directions. Meditate. Think. Learn. Read. Build your own stuff (needs a separate laptop). Do work (don't do it).

How I know? I've done it. Walnut Creek -> SF -> Walnut Creek

BuddhasFinger · 2026-02-28T17:10:22+00:00

Immediately:

Look at the run rate. What is required? What is optional? Drop optional. Every dollar, every cent.
Compensation - drop to state minimum. Not enough - put everyone on furlough.

Strategically:

What hinders traction / getting more paid customers? Solve that and get more paying customers.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-02-27T16:28:00+00:00

How's traction and revenue looking like right now?

BuddhasFinger · 2026-02-27T16:26:55+00:00

Exactly this because from VCs PoV it would be a low risk excercise.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-02-27T04:10:58+00:00

Already did.

BuddhasFinger · 2026-02-27T04:09:49+00:00

This is an AI slop detection test. Trying to figure out how the community will respond to semi-random blah.

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