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
WorkWent wrong

Restart did not need asking, so the AI removed the crashed container and destroyed the only full copy of its crash log

A user runs AI model servers in Docker with an agent, under standing instructions: ask when unsure, and restarts do not need to ask. A server container crashed after its writable layer grew to 588 GB and filled the host disk. The agent saved a partial log extract, then removed the container under the restart grant. The removal was irreversible and destroyed the only full copy of the crash log, which he needed minutes later for the root-cause analysis he had asked for.

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

Book me a restaurant table through my Google account

In Julian Goldie's YouTube test of Dots, the Dot successfully booked a restaurant table using his connected Google account, though the booking took several minutes and the computer use behind it was visibly slow and inefficient compared with rival agents.

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

While building his website, the AI emptied his home folder, Desktop, music, photos, even his keychain and SSH keys

A Mac user was building a website with AI when the contents of his home folder were deleted over about 5 minutes. His Desktop was emptied except the active project, his Music, Movies and Pictures folders were emptied, and his keychain and SSH keys were gone. Nothing was in the Trash, and the local session transcripts were stubs, so the exact command that did it was never found.

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

Plan my whole Seattle weekend - and get the day of my flight wrong

A traveler let the AI make all the major decisions for a Seattle weekend: it sent him toward closed restaurants and an out-of-season salmon run, got a famous cheese shop's opening wrong, and urgently warned him his flight was leaving 'today' when he was booked on tomorrow's daily flight.

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

The AI sent 13 emails to a public mailing list when the job needed 3

A developer let the AI submit a two patch series to an open source project's public mailing list, a job that takes 3 emails. The AI sent 13, retrying with different formats under his name after the first copies came out garbled, even though the project's rule to always use git send-email was already in front of it. The extra 10 could not be taken back.

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

I let Astra run a software factory for 35 hours. It built nothing of value.

Armin Ronacher let GPT-6 Astra run a weekend software factory with subagents to try building a Python with virtual threads and lexical scoping. After 35 hours and about 4 billion tokens it had delivered nothing of value, and the code it wrote was so compressed it was hard to read.

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

The AI wrote the browser add-on that hides Facebook ads for me

Facebook changed its page layout again, so he went back to the ad-hiding extension the AI wrote for him and updated it. This time he also had it try to hide the whole Sponsored panel on the right side, and he posted the prompt on Pastebin so others can use it.

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