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why does it matter how it works? Either it works and people pay for it or it doesn't. Does every company owe you, the end user, an explanation on how their prod

why does it matter how it works? Either it works and people pay for it or it doesn't. Does every company owe you, the end user, an explanation on how their product works? While you're at it, maybe you can get all the secret recipes.

rvz 2y ago
> why does it matter how it works? So we don't get another Theranos grift if this eventually raises money from private investors?
- rco8786 2y ago
  Big difference since this product appears to demonstrate that it does work.
brailsafe 2y ago
Well, because we're curious and this is a place where curious critical technology enthusiasts gravitate. If it doesn't do anything novel _at_all_ or if there's no story to elaborate on, go to Reddit. Plus, many are probably tired of seeing the same thing being made repeatedly that just proxys requests to chatgpt and makes them look pretty.
- davidatbu 2y ago
  I'm curious: don't you think the aggregate interest of the HN crowd is adequately measured via the voting mechanism? You seem not to find BlenderGPT as presented in its current form uninteresting, but if you accept that (voting up)=interest, many other people did. Why dismiss("go to Reddit" comment) someone else's work, that, evidently, many other HNers find interesting?
  - brailsafe 2y ago
    I didn't dismiss anyone's work, and I do find the upvote system to, at least in some cases, adequately represent the level interest on hn. The question was: > why does it matter how it works? and that's all my comment was intended to answer. Many people here are interested both in the idea of doing something enough to upvote AND are curious how something works. We're not necessarily just consoomers, we're often interested in details, but if I was buying something and wanted to know why I should, the maker should probably be able to answer why their thing is special; in this case, I'm just saying that people on HN are generally interested in how things work.
    - davidatbu 2y ago
      Sure, HNers are interested in explanations of how things work (I am too!). But you specifically said that without such an explanation, products should "go to Reddit" (which presumably means, they don't belong on HN). I'll leave whether that's a "dismissal of someone's work" or not up to you, but all I'm saying is: it's evident via voting that many HNers find BlenderGPT, a tech product, interesting, even with the lack of that explanation. And so BlenderGPT does not need to "go to Reddit".
      - brailsafe 2y ago
        > But you specifically said that without such an explanation, products should "go to Reddit" (which presumably means, they don't belong on HN) I didn't imply anything about BlenderGPT at all, I just responded to a comment. Reddit is both an advertising platform for products of all kinds, and a conversation platform for broader categories of audiences, whereas SHOW HN is like a "here's my project/product, I hope you find it interesting, and here's a chance to ask me about it". If someone posts a Show HN, it's fair assume that if people find it interesting, they'll ask how it works, because we're going to be curious, and if a person is hypothetically not prepared for that, Show HN might not be the best place to post it. I didn't say any of that was true or false regarding BlenderGPT, it was just a general remark.
        davidatbu 2y ago
        Gotcha. It sounds like you and I agree that tech products whose underlying workings might not be elaborated are still ok to be on Show HN!
        brailsafe 2y ago
        Do you believe this was the nature of the thread? Seems appropriate to say you agree with me that Show HN is ideal for those who'd like to engage in some curious discussion about whatever it is they're posting, but without regard to whether or not that's a requirement.
lm28469 2y ago
> why does it matter how it works? Either it works and people pay for it or it doesn't. It's hackernews, not aliexpress
ilaksh 2y ago
I think that's a fair point that not every company owes the end user a recipe for how to reproduce their product. However, it's also a fair question on Hacker News. Again, fair if they chose not to answer it.. but many people here are programmers. Since they explained that they used an open source model and system https://github.com/Microsoft/TRELLIS https://github.com/Microsoft/TRELLIS, it will be possible for other developers who want to start similar businesses to launch basic competitors within a week or so, if they are ambitious about it. I spent about 10 minutes with my agent running Claude 3.5 Sonnet New and generated most of the core code already: https://github.com/runvnc/img2blender https://github.com/runvnc/img2blender Although I haven't tested that and don't actually know if it will work.

rvz 2y ago

> why does it matter how it works? So we don't get another Theranos grift if this eventually raises money from private investors?

rco8786 2y ago
Big difference since this product appears to demonstrate that it does work.

brailsafe 2y ago

Well, because we're curious and this is a place where curious critical technology enthusiasts gravitate. If it doesn't do anything novel _at_all_ or if there's no story to elaborate on, go to Reddit. Plus, many are probably tired of seeing the same thing being made repeatedly that just proxys requests to chatgpt and makes them look pretty.

davidatbu 2y ago
I'm curious: don't you think the aggregate interest of the HN crowd is adequately measured via the voting mechanism? You seem not to find BlenderGPT as presented in its current form uninteresting, but if you accept that (voting up)=interest, many other people did. Why dismiss("go to Reddit" comment) someone else's work, that, evidently, many other HNers find interesting?
- brailsafe 2y ago
  I didn't dismiss anyone's work, and I do find the upvote system to, at least in some cases, adequately represent the level interest on hn. The question was: > why does it matter how it works? and that's all my comment was intended to answer. Many people here are interested both in the idea of doing something enough to upvote AND are curious how something works. We're not necessarily just consoomers, we're often interested in details, but if I was buying something and wanted to know why I should, the maker should probably be able to answer why their thing is special; in this case, I'm just saying that people on HN are generally interested in how things work.
  - davidatbu 2y ago
    Sure, HNers are interested in explanations of how things work (I am too!). But you specifically said that without such an explanation, products should "go to Reddit" (which presumably means, they don't belong on HN). I'll leave whether that's a "dismissal of someone's work" or not up to you, but all I'm saying is: it's evident via voting that many HNers find BlenderGPT, a tech product, interesting, even with the lack of that explanation. And so BlenderGPT does not need to "go to Reddit".
    - brailsafe 2y ago
      > But you specifically said that without such an explanation, products should "go to Reddit" (which presumably means, they don't belong on HN) I didn't imply anything about BlenderGPT at all, I just responded to a comment. Reddit is both an advertising platform for products of all kinds, and a conversation platform for broader categories of audiences, whereas SHOW HN is like a "here's my project/product, I hope you find it interesting, and here's a chance to ask me about it". If someone posts a Show HN, it's fair assume that if people find it interesting, they'll ask how it works, because we're going to be curious, and if a person is hypothetically not prepared for that, Show HN might not be the best place to post it. I didn't say any of that was true or false regarding BlenderGPT, it was just a general remark.
      - davidatbu 2y ago
        Gotcha. It sounds like you and I agree that tech products whose underlying workings might not be elaborated are still ok to be on Show HN!
        brailsafe 2y ago
        Do you believe this was the nature of the thread? Seems appropriate to say you agree with me that Show HN is ideal for those who'd like to engage in some curious discussion about whatever it is they're posting, but without regard to whether or not that's a requirement.

lm28469 2y ago

> why does it matter how it works? Either it works and people pay for it or it doesn't. It's hackernews, not aliexpress

ilaksh 2y ago

I think that's a fair point that not every company owes the end user a recipe for how to reproduce their product. However, it's also a fair question on Hacker News. Again, fair if they chose not to answer it.. but many people here are programmers. Since they explained that they used an open source model and system https://github.com/Microsoft/TRELLIS https://github.com/Microsoft/TRELLIS, it will be possible for other developers who want to start similar businesses to launch basic competitors within a week or so, if they are ambitious about it. I spent about 10 minutes with my agent running Claude 3.5 Sonnet New and generated most of the core code already: https://github.com/runvnc/img2blender https://github.com/runvnc/img2blender Although I haven't tested that and don't actually know if it will work.