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 · 970 ideas
HobbiesPartly worked

Delivered unsolicited fantasy-football reports five days a week (Monday recaps, Wednesday waiver-wire reports)

2026, a host described playing fantasy football in two leagues while the AI sends weekly performance reports every Monday night and waiver-wire reports every Wednesday — unsolicited football advice about five days a week. Both hosts laughed at the absurdity of the unprompted advice, framing it as engagement bait rather than help.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
WorkWent wrong

Concur AI booked my flight with my birth date wrong

Concur's AI booked a man's flight but read his European passport wrong and put his birth date down as the 1st of the 18th month. The flight ended up booked with the wrong birth date.

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

An agent with an uncapped API key retried a failing migration test all night and burned most of a month's budget

Last spring he gave an agent an API key with no cap on it. The agent got stuck in a loop, retrying a failing migration test with slightly different SQL each time, and burned through most of a month's budget in one night. Nothing malicious, just a loop with no exit. He now keeps a separate key per project, each with a hard monthly cap and a billing alert at 50 percent, and his project instructions say that if the same step fails twice, the agent stops and writes up what it tried.

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

The AI hunted my protein powder deal and vetted sellers I had never heard of

Derrick Ong Chin asked four agents to find the protein powder he buys often, Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard whey in Double Rich Chocolate, for under $0.90 an ounce. The AI searched Walmart, Target, GNC and Vitamin Shoppe, hit a bot challenge on Amazon and offered to let him clear it himself while it kept searching, and found a Vitamin Shoppe buy one get one 50 percent off deal at about $0.92 an ounce that still needed checking at checkout. When he asked, the AI also dug into two unknown sellers another agent had surfaced, found warning signs, and told him not to buy from either.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
MoneyWent wrong

Shop for New Balance 9060s in my colorway

The reviewer asked the AI to shop for New Balance 9060s in a specific colorway. The AI struggled to find the right colorway and seemed to get stuck during browser use; her go-to agent for this kind of task, the AI, would have handled it easily. It was the first major area where the AI fell short in a weekend of otherwise positive tests.

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

The AI wiped my rooted TV setup while installing a new launcher

He asked the AI to install the Free My TV launcher on his rooted LG TV. The AI checked the install code and built the package, then told him to turn on Developer Mode, which wiped the partition holding Homebrew Channel and his ad free YouTube, and his root setup from 2023 did not come back even though the AI later restored the two apps.

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

Book me a well-reviewed Asian restaurant for 6 p.m. tonight

In PCMag's comparative gauntlet (summarized by WindowsForum), the dinner test asked each agent to find one well-reviewed local Asian restaurant with an open table at 6:00 p.m. that evening. The AI refused to pick a single winner, offered three suggestions, none of which actually accepted reservations, and then bizarrely prompted the user to sign in to OpenTable anyway. Dots found a 6:15 p.m. slot and flagged it as the closest to the request.

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

Send my cold outreach — 74 emails, 6 bounces, zero positive replies

Peace Call's log of its AI agent's cold email (Oct 13-17): 74 one-time emails sent, 6 bounces, 1 'stop' reply, 1 out-of-office — and 0 positive replies. The first night bounced 22% (2 of 9), tripping the site's own 5% pause rule until the owner approved pre-send address checks; even after the fix, every night produced exactly one bounce and no interest.

This one went wrong. See what happened 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.