The AI tends his system configs, easy to back out when wrong
Used the AI to develop his NixOS configs; switched in June, the setup has been superb and issues are easy to back out.
429 new ideas this week
Level up how you use AI
Real things everyday people got it to do, and how to try them yourself.
A random mix from the whole library. Shuffle for a new set.
Find my cheapest NYC to Tunis flights for October 26
Moneywise journalist AnnaMarie Houlis gave the AI her parameters: any NYC-area airport, after 5 p.m. on Oct. 26, carry-on only. The AI returned a reasoned lineup: its pick, a $595 Turkish Airlines flight from JFK (8:40 p.m., 14h45m); the cheapest, a $462 Royal Air Maroc with a 33-hour Casablanca layover; and the fastest, a $725 Air France from Newark (10h45m). She kept the research but booked herself, unwilling to share card details after reported the AI security vulnerabilities.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
The AI set up his editor his way, once, for all four of his machines
Told the AI which plugins and settings he wanted in Neovim; now has a single-file setup used across four machines, and the AI bundled gitbutler-cli from source for him.
Turn our team meeting transcript into tomorrow's agenda and a panel prep doc
Asked what else it should do, Kicker used a team-meeting transcript to draft the follow-up meeting agenda and created a prep document for a panel Newton was moderating that weekend. Both artifacts were produced proactively from existing context.
The AI patched my radio app, and my home server keeps it up to date
He used AI to decompile the Android app for Swedish public service radio and add an open source option for casting audio. He also set up a script on his home server that pulls updates, applies the patch, and pushes the updated app to his phone.
Identified an Amex extended-warranty benefit on a defective product bought over a
After a manufacturer declined help on a defective item because it was outside the return window, the AI found the purchase was made with an American Express card carrying an obscure extended-warranty protection. It submitted the claim on the author's behalf and obtained the refund.
My wife lost her bakery notebook, so I built her an app
His wife runs La Condesa Baking Company, a one person wholesale bakery with four cafe accounts, and all her shelf counts and invoices lived in one yellow notebook that went missing. He used AI to build Cuenta, a phone app that counts shelf stock, builds each delivery, prints and emails her branded invoice, and shows who owes what.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
I built an app that turns my saved articles into one EPUB
He saved articles and never read them, because on his phone he ended up on social media or email instead. So he built a reading app with AI and the AI that bundles his saved articles into one EPUB for his Xteink X4 Pro e-reader.
Turned a water-pipe cleaning notice photo into calendar alerts and ongoing monitoring
Kilsonmoon sent the AI a photo of a neighborhood water-pipe cleaning notice: The AI identified when his street would be cleaned, added it to his calendar, set a messenger reminder for the day before, and relayed the precautions — close the valve, avoid running the washing machine. It also found the full schedule on the water utility's website and registered ongoing monitoring so future notices trigger automatic alerts.
I pointed the AI at my website for an hour. It deleted 73,657 lines.
A site owner pointed the AI at his site sublunar.space for an hour. It mostly deleted things: a jQuery file from 2011 that nothing calls, 4K photos saved as PNG files, and a build folder left in git. The cleanup cut 73,657 lines and about 23 MB of images.
Every idea is a real post from someone who tried it, summarized in our words, with a link to the original. App names are swapped for plain words.