Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Range of Non‑AI Projects

  • Wide variety of projects: dev tools, programming languages, games, educational apps, personal utilities, CAD, media tools, and physical builds.
  • Many are “scratch your own itch” efforts: fixing pain points with PDFs, photos, RSS, Shopify, email, iCloud photos, Apple Music libraries, volunteer coordination, school/club logistics, and bill splitting.
  • Several long‑running labors of love: a 20‑year forum, decade‑long photo manager, and multi‑year games and language projects.

Developer Tools, Languages & Infrastructure

  • New programming languages and config languages (Pascal‑inspired, music‑focused, config DSLs, Nix parser reimplementation).
  • Build tooling alternatives: replacement for CMake/Ninja, SQL interface for DynamoDB, Postgres driver with pipelining, WebAssembly toolkit in Go, Web APIs over Elixir, “personal cloud” fabric, chaos‑testing CLI.
  • Desktop and web dev frameworks: Go+browser GUI framework, PureScript+Qt apps, NodeGUI, descriptive PC setup tools, 3‑way diff editor, JSONPath tester.

Apps, Services & Platforms

  • Consumer‑facing tools: intermittent fasting tracker, journaling app, self‑tracking app, Korean learning game, math learning platform, volunteering platform, search engine alternative, Substack and RSS discovery tools, Postgres mailing list reader.
  • Media and creative: offline PDF search, browser PDF editor, image editor, audio streaming platform, ESP32 synthesizer, structural biology GUI, behavior data visualizer, photo apps better than AI search.
  • Identity, privacy, and “trustworthy” tech: non‑profit identity service, privacy‑minded search, email with explicit “no AI” policy, delayed‑FOSS license tracker.

Games & Creative Experiences

  • Multiple indie games for web, desktop, and Playdate, plus plant and car‑on‑Mars sandboxes, word games, crossword generators (including from Anki decks), and LARP with custom spatial hardware.
  • Emphasis on constraints and “doing it for the doing,” often rejecting AI in the core experience even if used for initial scaffolding.

Physical & Offline Projects

  • Home workshops, woodworking, bouldering walls, drones, LEGO builds, FPGA‑based 16‑bit console, ESP32 hardware, and real‑world synths and cases.
  • Several comment on these as therapeutic escapes from AI/tech overload.

Attitudes Toward AI

  • Thread is explicitly “non‑AI,” but some describe using AI as a coding assistant while keeping shipped products non‑AI.
  • A few posts express skepticism or fatigue with AI hype; others treat AI pragmatically as just another tool.