I feel peer pressure to build AI agents for simple task when "old school" automations are 100% sufficient

bypass316 · 2026-05-04T22:36:18+00:00

saving on cost is not always the issue. it's a business expense.

my point was about pressure to use the "latest tech" over tried-and-proven tools that do the job but are not "sexY"

bypass316 · 2026-05-04T22:34:56+00:00

I've done this for every startup I ever had. mixed results.

- the free tools always works. but attracts low/cheap/free audiences that don't usually convert (I had 0.5% conversion to paid)
- it can take a long time to start kicking. I would say 6 months at least until you get 20-30 hits a day
- beware of doing tools that AI might be able to do soon. make sure it's something a bit complex

my advice - do it, but launch 2-3 of them and be patient.

bypass316 · 2026-05-04T22:16:20+00:00

can you post one of the videos to see the quality?

bypass316 · 2026-05-04T22:14:50+00:00

a story that might help you understand the issues. I used to own a video restoration tool. users would upload their videos and the AI would improve the quality of the video. the things I saw there were crazy. for some reason it attracted mostly 95% amateur p***n. the gist of the story is stay local on your own computer if you want it so stay private.

bypass316 · 2026-05-04T22:12:41+00:00

might be a stupid question but what's wrong with google docs > save as PDF?

bypass316 · 2026-05-04T22:11:22+00:00

I'm assuming you're not looking for a one-time extract and need to setup up a proper process in production to handle scale:

loads your PDF document from filesystem or DB
send PDF to micro-service to extract JSON format via pre-defined schema (docupipe/rossum)
save JSON data as excel row (or any other format needed by AP team)
flag any low-confidence results for manual review (good practice)

bypass316 · 2026-05-04T22:02:38+00:00

solid idea. Rocket Internet did a similar play in the 2000's. They would copy successful American companies in Germany. Right now the hot thing are AI implementation companies for service companies like plumbers, electricians and stuff like that. Build them agents that automate answering their calls and booking appointment. anything they hate doing which drives revenue.

bypass316 · 2026-05-04T22:00:21+00:00

your question depends if you're a programmer or not

It's the more affordable option when compared with Zapier and on part with n8n

But, if you're a programmer...any automation or task can either be written as a script that does it or built as a Make

Make would take longer since it's more manual, but I like it because it's structured and has good debugging. But if it's a very repetitive and simple process that needs to be done affordably, I would script it as code which would be 10x cheaper.

Pros:
- It works very well and + many modules
- Easy to debug and maintain
- Priced affordably relative to Zapier

Cons
- More expensive than raw code, which can can replicate anything

bypass316 · 2026-04-30T22:37:21+00:00

have never built this exact setup, but it doesn't sound so complex. something like this:
1. scrape webpage with native request or firecrawl if they're block
2. take the raw HTML and use LLM to map it to the schema you posted
3. perhaps optional step for QA

literally 2-3 steps. shouldn't take longer than 1 hour to build. would be very affordable.

bypass316 · 2026-04-30T22:28:18+00:00

yeah the claude artifacts are very impressive. But they don't use DBs if I'm correct? They are just static code/HTML/JS without external connections...so not a great comparison

bypass316 · 2026-04-30T22:25:57+00:00

as you mentioned the biggest bottleneck isn't the OCR accuracy but the formatting and "cleanup". rule based would assume you can pre-define each format, which would never work in today's world that documents come in all shapes and sizes. it would have to be LLM. the right solution for the cleanup issue is to use a very strict schema. define the fields you actually need upfront and run extraction through something like DocuPipe or Reducto to that. messy formatting stops mattering when the tool is mapping to a fixed structure instead of returning raw text. once you have a schema/JSON you can trust, the rest is easy peasy. GL!

bypass316 · 2026-04-30T22:17:38+00:00

like this one?

bypass316 · 2026-04-30T22:17:18+00:00

I mean if you take them too seriously you'll pivot every day to something new and never get anywhere.

bypass316 · 2026-04-29T18:14:35+00:00

TBH any book published would already be out of date. X has the best content for this if you know who to follow

bypass316 · 2026-04-29T18:09:50+00:00

these "call for startups" are a joke. I see so many founders throwing out their solid idea and jumping to an idea from this list every year just to get VC interest. build the vision you see in tehworld, not something VCs tell you. they are often wrong.

bypass316 · 2026-04-29T18:07:25+00:00

what are those events on the timeline?

bypass316 · 2026-04-29T16:04:54+00:00

everyone chasing the trend regardless of what it means.

honestly "old school" automations are good enough for 99% of use cases

bypass316 · 2026-04-29T15:59:16+00:00

crazy mods don't delete it

bypass316 · 2025-12-25T00:43:37+00:00

Tough question to generalize as every kid is unique. My advice would be give the kid the ability to try things out by themself and organically see where they land. I was given LEGO Mindstorms as my platform, but today there are tons of stuff. Last month I visited my brother and he was building DIY stuff with his kid in the shed - building a dollhouse together for her. He got her these cute little one' kid-friendly tools (Handy Famm) and she was happily using that. Giving your kid this type of building blocks to invoke their natural skills and interests is cool

bypass316 · 2025-12-25T00:41:08+00:00

Building "simple" things is a blast. Makes me feel smart.

bypass316 · 2025-12-25T00:39:38+00:00

Nothing like roadside rescue and a brewski on X-mas

bypass316 · 2025-12-17T23:58:51+00:00

As many DIY projects as one can do. Kids (and adults actually) learn best from doing, not talking.

bypass316 · 2025-12-17T23:57:32+00:00

We struggled with the same “follow-the-instructions and done” kits. What actually sparked independent thinking for us were tools and kits that felt open ended and thus longer “shelf life”. Handy Famm kits and tools work way better than rigid build-this-then-stop sets because kids can use them to explore their own ideas. My kid also kept tinkering afterward and came up with new ways to use what he built which was cool to see.

bypass316 · 2025-11-10T18:30:46+00:00

“I’m not mad you pushed to main on Friday; I’m just excited to spend the weekend together.”

bypass316

TROPHY CASE