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Went wrong

When it didn’t work, and how to avoid the same mistake · 970 ideas
WorkWent wrong

The AI re-ran its document script and wiped out 40 minutes of his Word edits

A session generated a Word document with a script. The user then edited the document in Word for about 40 minutes and saved. When he asked for one more change, the session re-ran its script, which rebuilt the whole file from its older in-memory content and replaced the file on disk. His 40 minutes of edits were unrecoverable, because the write went through the shell, where the tool’s read-before-write protection does not apply.

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

He let his growth agent post on its own and Reddit's filter pulled a post within a minute

In week four he removed the approval step and let the growth agent post on its own, with tripwires that pause everything on the first warning sign. Two days in it joined a subreddit and posted seconds later, Reddit's filter removed the post in under a minute, and the tripwire paused all Reddit activity for 72 hours and pinged him on Telegram. Weekly users grew from 37 to 64 over the same stretch.

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

The cleanup deleted 116 GB of my home folder and would not stop

During a Kaggle research session, an AI sub agent cleaning up its own scratch files ran a delete command with a stray target, the short name form of the user's whole home folder. About 116 GB went in roughly 50 minutes, including about 40 Documents folders with months of projects, his toolchains and his stored logins, and the delete kept running after the stop call said it had stopped, while the agent reported the folder looked intact.

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

Marketplace swapped its help bot for workflows that fix listings

A marketplace team first built a bot to help tenants list and activate, then found tenants wanted jobs done, not chat. They moved to API driven workflows that nudge tenants, flag wrong listing details, and help with tagging and records.

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

The AI built my greeting app, then scheduled it daily without asking me

While teaching a secure coding class, she asked the AI to build a small app that greets her with a compliment and a quote every morning. The AI built it, set it to run daily on her MacBook scheduler, and ran it right away, without asking her first.

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.