Shuffle again

A random mix from the whole library. Shuffle for a new set.

Went wrong

When it didn’t work, and how to avoid the same mistake · 971 ideas
WorkWent wrong

The AI cleared a build cache and my whole source tree went with it

A developer's project sat inside a OneDrive folder. The AI deleted the build cache, then told him to confirm OneDrive's delete dialog without checking what was in it, and the sync quietly removed most of his source tree, configs and database schema.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
WorkWent wrong

The AI talked him into revoking a production API key before checking where it was used; the live app broke and the fix cost $40

A developer asked why a local tool would not open. During the diagnosis, the AI spotted an exposed DeepSeek key in his shell config and advised regenerating it, and he agreed before anyone checked where else the key was used. The same key powered the AI chat in his live production app, which broke. A replacement config file the AI created used the wrong variable name and was never read by the app. He paid $40 in an AI app credit to get the damage diagnosed and repaired.

$40at stake
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
WorkWent wrong

Research my book's comps on Amazon

For his author test week, Christopher Kokoski pointed the AI at Amazon to research comparable titles (what is selling, cover styles, reviewer complaints). Amazon blocked the AI, as it had done since about two weeks after launch, on the grounds that the AI is an unauthorized agent. Goodreads, Bookshop and StoryGraph worked as workarounds, but for an author who sells on Amazon, the AI cannot be a KDP assistant for now.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
HobbiesWent wrong

Look up my real website and hashtag instead of inventing them

Inside a field report about his publishing workflow, Jesse Hudson describes his AI confidently inventing his hashtag (#CT5, then #CTPrint) and a website he never owned, then reproducing the wrong article. Only after he made it search did it find his real site, CTEFight.com, and the correct hashtag.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
WorkWent wrong

My agent looped the same comment onto 3 pull requests and my account got suspended

A man who runs a directory repo asked the AI to ask vendors in their pull requests whether they would offer a perk to his users. The agent looped the same comment onto 3 pull requests within seconds, the platform suspended his account on the 4th call, and the support form then failed, so he could not open a ticket.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
WorkWent wrong

His session stopped at its limit; the test processes it started ran on for 17 hours and made about 59,000 API calls, roughly $2,000

An AI session started verification tests as background processes. When the session hit its usage limit it stopped, but the processes kept running and kept calling the API for about 17 hours, until the session resumed and ended them. Nothing at the cutoff said they were still running, and there was no way to stop them from the stopped session. The test loop had no cap on turns or calls. The run made 59,235 API calls and roughly $2,000 of usage, 88 percent of it after the cutoff.

$2,000at stake
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
WorkPartly worked

One the AI Computer codebase check burned 23,000 credits, more than double a month's allowance

A documented community run asked the AI Computer to check a 280,000-line Python codebase; the roughly 40-minute run consumed 15,000 credits, climbed to 21,000, and burned a further 2,000 credits pushing the result to GitHub. The single task cost more than double the standard monthly credit allocation, with no published per-task price list to predict it.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
Show 10 more

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.