As you can surmise from the domain, this is created by Mr Doob. They're most well known for creating the 3D JavaScript library Three.js: https://threejs.org
Their full site and a lot more cool stuff they've made can be found here: https://mrdoob.com
I know no one stops you from using hashtag `codevember` on vibe coded project[0], but... isn't the whole point of these one month challenges(genuary, nodevember, inktober, etc) about human creativity? Like game jams?
A lot of established engineers are using LLMs. I am not sure why that is still a stigma. Our industry is going through major changes, that is well established. I would be surprised if someone is not using LLMs to produce cool experiments.
I guess, but this isn't just some claude-kiddie, he's the creator of Three.js. it's like slamming Linus for using AI on the Linux kernel. He knows what he's doing.
I know who he is and I don't care what he does with ai.
To me these little challenges are about improving programming skills, showing creativity, and mostly just for fun. So using LLMs on 'codevember' feels weird. That doesn't mean I'm blaming him for it, I'm just having a hard time accepting it.
A big chunk of the software development industry is not typing code but figuring out what code to write in the first place.
If you want to draw out the construction analogy, ask a mason or carpenter if they'd rather be an architect. (a lot would probably not want to, but I know a few people in the trades that can do a lot more than just welding two pieces of steel together, it's just that their job is the welding part.
Actually this will be one of the challenges; LLM assisted coding has empowered people to be more decision makers, lead developers, architects, etc than code monkeys. But it's a pyramid, there's only so many lead developers you feasibly need on a project.)
Writing software and having software running on a computer is not the point of all of this. The point is to then use these tools to improve your physical world outside of the computer, and to use the computer to improve your mind and then apply that to how you live in the physical living world. The computer is not your friend, your colleague, or your enemy, it's a screwdriver the over excited gave a celebrity complex.
Do I get the same satisfaction from defining and directing a project that my team at work implements?
Yes. Writing code was always fun but running a project is itself a systems engineering problem. Especially if you’re the one defining project scope.
So yes, absolutely it is the same level of joy. The code I wrote was just the method needed to solve the low-level problem but it was never the entire problem space.
I can see my fingerprints all over the user facing design and I can see all the places where I agonized over different approaches to maximize user enjoyment. Seeing the solutions manifest is thrilling frankly. I see users of LLMs as filling a similar role to mine in this respect.
That said, I understand that not everyone enjoys the entirety of the problem space to the same degree and so I can see how a reasonable group of people might not find the higher-level puzzle as enjoyable as its low-level counterpart just as there are those who might find the low-level tedious instead of rewarding.
There is a point in the LLM usage spectrum where I feel that I am not really understanding the stuff I am creating. I can have the LLM write some code, without starting to feel this. But it is only a small amount of code...
Imagine you're getting an extension to your house. You might not be an architect, an electrician, a plasterer, a carpenter, an interior designer, a grounds worker, a gardener, a labourer or any other profession I've missed off (apologies) but you get a great sense of joy from designing and seeing your extension built.
You outsourced literally everything, you didn't lay a single brick, didn't calculate a single beams "load-bearing" capacity but at the end you have this awesome extension you can live in that brings you joy. There's going to be snags here and there as there always is with anything, even if you crafted and did it all by hand, but seeing it built and guiding and adapting things along the way is the fun part.
The parent poster’s post is amusing because I did all of those things. I framed out an addition to my house. I demoed all of the living spaces, installed insulation, hung drywall, did the trim (which was difficult to learn!), installed windows. I also built a patio (with a shovel!), built a fence, planted an orchard, etc. I did these things because, although I have the money to pay others, it was 1) deeply satisfying and 2) I wanted it done right. I think lots of technical people think that we can’t do it right because it’s not our area but—if you care, you will do it right.
Creativity is about coming up with your vision with the tools at hand in my eyes. I would still argue in situations like this you need a sense of style to understand what works and what doesn't.
I see plenty of creativity on display here. I haven't seen anything like this and it was delightful. Also makes me want to explore more that I can do to create visualizations like this.
The fact that it was vibe coded matters very little to me. Gate keeping the concept of a codevember doesnt seem very codevember to me.
People still paint, despite photoshop. People still play instruments, despite Digital Audio Workstations.
There is art in the craft, and more importantly enjoyment in the craft.
I wouldn't AI generate a song because all of the fun for me and my friends is in the playing and watching. You will find that's true very often for creative people and those who enjoy their work.
If all you are doing is blasting out corporate assets, or persuing money, I don't think anyone cares what you are using, generate away.
i don't care about leaderboards but i do care about the community of like-minded people that comes with these kinds of competitions, which AI larpers totally eliminate
While true, I think it's also true that ideas are cheap - how many people here know someone that had a great idea (like "uber for pets") and just need a software developer to build it?
That said, idea people can now make their ideas a reality quicker / cheaper without needing an expert, if only to show it. Which in turn can make them more creative and original. In theory.
It is nice, but I'm somewhat unnerved that it never stops pouring. I expect it to finally stop at some time, and it doesn't, which for some reason makes me uneasy.
As you can surmise from the domain, this is created by Mr Doob. They're most well known for creating the 3D JavaScript library Three.js: https://threejs.org
Their full site and a lot more cool stuff they've made can be found here: https://mrdoob.com
Or, best known to others as being the guy that made Gravity Google way back when.
And r08064!
I know no one stops you from using hashtag `codevember` on vibe coded project[0], but... isn't the whole point of these one month challenges(genuary, nodevember, inktober, etc) about human creativity? Like game jams?
[0]: https://x.com/mrdoob/status/2117561239249518650
A lot of established engineers are using LLMs. I am not sure why that is still a stigma. Our industry is going through major changes, that is well established. I would be surprised if someone is not using LLMs to produce cool experiments.
> I am not sure why that is still a stigma.
> isn't the whole point of these one month challenges(genuary, nodevember, inktober, etc) about human creativity? Like game jams?
I guess, but this isn't just some claude-kiddie, he's the creator of Three.js. it's like slamming Linus for using AI on the Linux kernel. He knows what he's doing.
I know who he is and I don't care what he does with ai.
To me these little challenges are about improving programming skills, showing creativity, and mostly just for fun. So using LLMs on 'codevember' feels weird. That doesn't mean I'm blaming him for it, I'm just having a hard time accepting it.
If coding is for you about writing beautiful code, then yes.
Many of us are in the game because of the love for building things.
So you get the same joy from building things even when you outsource the "building" to some other person?
A big chunk of the software development industry is not typing code but figuring out what code to write in the first place.
If you want to draw out the construction analogy, ask a mason or carpenter if they'd rather be an architect. (a lot would probably not want to, but I know a few people in the trades that can do a lot more than just welding two pieces of steel together, it's just that their job is the welding part.
Actually this will be one of the challenges; LLM assisted coding has empowered people to be more decision makers, lead developers, architects, etc than code monkeys. But it's a pyramid, there's only so many lead developers you feasibly need on a project.)
> empowered people to be more decision makers, lead developers, architects
Add a "pseudo" before each and we would be in total agreement.
Writing software and having software running on a computer is not the point of all of this. The point is to then use these tools to improve your physical world outside of the computer, and to use the computer to improve your mind and then apply that to how you live in the physical living world. The computer is not your friend, your colleague, or your enemy, it's a screwdriver the over excited gave a celebrity complex.
Do I get the same satisfaction from defining and directing a project that my team at work implements?
Yes. Writing code was always fun but running a project is itself a systems engineering problem. Especially if you’re the one defining project scope.
So yes, absolutely it is the same level of joy. The code I wrote was just the method needed to solve the low-level problem but it was never the entire problem space.
I can see my fingerprints all over the user facing design and I can see all the places where I agonized over different approaches to maximize user enjoyment. Seeing the solutions manifest is thrilling frankly. I see users of LLMs as filling a similar role to mine in this respect.
That said, I understand that not everyone enjoys the entirety of the problem space to the same degree and so I can see how a reasonable group of people might not find the higher-level puzzle as enjoyable as its low-level counterpart just as there are those who might find the low-level tedious instead of rewarding.
There is a point in the LLM usage spectrum where I feel that I am not really understanding the stuff I am creating. I can have the LLM write some code, without starting to feel this. But it is only a small amount of code...
Imagine you're getting an extension to your house. You might not be an architect, an electrician, a plasterer, a carpenter, an interior designer, a grounds worker, a gardener, a labourer or any other profession I've missed off (apologies) but you get a great sense of joy from designing and seeing your extension built.
You outsourced literally everything, you didn't lay a single brick, didn't calculate a single beams "load-bearing" capacity but at the end you have this awesome extension you can live in that brings you joy. There's going to be snags here and there as there always is with anything, even if you crafted and did it all by hand, but seeing it built and guiding and adapting things along the way is the fun part.
This analogy only makes sense if you think there is zero value in actually crafting something yourself.
The parent poster’s post is amusing because I did all of those things. I framed out an addition to my house. I demoed all of the living spaces, installed insulation, hung drywall, did the trim (which was difficult to learn!), installed windows. I also built a patio (with a shovel!), built a fence, planted an orchard, etc. I did these things because, although I have the money to pay others, it was 1) deeply satisfying and 2) I wanted it done right. I think lots of technical people think that we can’t do it right because it’s not our area but—if you care, you will do it right.
I hired somebody to do the toilets. Fuck that.
Not OP but if it comes to Claude or OpenAI use, that does make me roll my eyes.
I keep my local AI rack under my 3D printer because they are the same type of tool to me.
> If coding is for you about writing beautiful code
...when did I ever said that?
What are you saying then?
And why are you implying that using AI does not improve those skills?
You can learn nothing or become a master both ways. AI will just give you some tangible results first but in the end it depends solely on you.
> What are you saying then?
I literally said that "I'm just having hard time accepting it."
> And why are you implying that using AI does not improve those skills?
I'm not.
So "hacker man yelling at the claude"
Creativity is about coming up with your vision with the tools at hand in my eyes. I would still argue in situations like this you need a sense of style to understand what works and what doesn't.
I see plenty of creativity on display here. I haven't seen anything like this and it was delightful. Also makes me want to explore more that I can do to create visualizations like this.
The fact that it was vibe coded matters very little to me. Gate keeping the concept of a codevember doesnt seem very codevember to me.
The creativity space moves. Now, it has moved to how you use your tokens.
People still paint, despite photoshop. People still play instruments, despite Digital Audio Workstations.
There is art in the craft, and more importantly enjoyment in the craft.
I wouldn't AI generate a song because all of the fun for me and my friends is in the playing and watching. You will find that's true very often for creative people and those who enjoy their work.
If all you are doing is blasting out corporate assets, or persuing money, I don't think anyone cares what you are using, generate away.
For some..
And some people still make stone tools as a creative pursuit. Everything is valid as creativity.
I thought so too, but AI is kinda destroying everything fun. Game jams, Advent of code, codevember apparently. To me personally it's super sad to see.
i don't care about leaderboards but i do care about the community of like-minded people that comes with these kinds of competitions, which AI larpers totally eliminate
If you care about leaderboards perhaps. If you do it because it's fun then there is no reason to use AI if you don't find that fulfilling.
I agree given that it’s about competition and not just having fun.
Ugh, fun.
i don't know, i vibe code a lot but could never come up with that. To me, it is pretty much human creativity.
While true, I think it's also true that ideas are cheap - how many people here know someone that had a great idea (like "uber for pets") and just need a software developer to build it?
That said, idea people can now make their ideas a reality quicker / cheaper without needing an expert, if only to show it. Which in turn can make them more creative and original. In theory.
It is nice, but I'm somewhat unnerved that it never stops pouring. I expect it to finally stop at some time, and it doesn't, which for some reason makes me uneasy.
Definitely kept me on the page, very cool.
If it could move with a mobile device’s gyroscope, that would be quite the amuse-esprit.
I was thinking the same thing, and I think it would be nice to use fluid in games.
If Apple has liquid glass, why can't web have jelly menus??
The revenge of Compiz Wobbly Windows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbCg9_YgKgM
Awesome! Not only that one can build this in JavaScript, but also that your browser on a mobile phone can render this.
I like this. Can I eat it?
Paste this in your browser console to support shearing https://dpaste.com/6C9TJVTS5
If you pause and the unpause after a while you get very pretty color bands! :)
This is fun, but boy it gets heavy/laggy as it accumulates.
`Unable to start: can't access property "getSupportedExtensions", this.gl is null`
Doesn't work on Firefox Mobile.
You might have webgl disabled. In the URL bar:
about:config -> webgl.disabled: false
Works over here on Firefox Mobile 159.0.1
Works in Fennec (F-droid), doesn't work in Brave
Safari/Chrome on iPhone fail.
Wdym?
Works in Safari on my old iPhone 12 mini.
Works on iceraven on mobile for me.
Works on Firefox on iOS.
Love it, but I want to tear it in half!
Really fun to play with. Great work!
That is oddly satisfying
Cool
When I grow up I want to be as intelligent and productive as Mr. Doob.
So squishy
I will give, for almost free, a nice consultancy to folks looking for the purpose in their lives.
AI slop on the front page of Hacker News.
I guess the great unwashed have finally won.
I am a bit disappointed that it cannot fill entire screen because it disappears.
Now i want those jelly candies in plastic blisters.
Classic web shit. Nice.