Ask HN: Projects You Thought Were Cool but Failed Miserably – What Happened?

Hey HN community,

I'm here to spark a discussion on a topic that, I believe, many of us have encountered but might not often talk about: projects that we were excited about and believed in, but that ended up failing miserably after release.

To kick things off, I want to share my own experience with a project called interfAIce. It's a Java/Kotlin library that allows developers to access Large Language Models (LLMs) by defining interfaces. The library automatically generates proxies that query the OpenAI API and formats the results into the defined return type data. I thought it was super cool at the time of development.

Despite my enthusiasm, my library never gained the attention I hoped for after its release. Reflecting on it, I believe the primary reason might be the mismatch between the technology stacks used by Java/Kotlin developers, who are mostly in server/mobile development, and AI developers, who predominantly use Python or C++. Of course, this could just be one of many reasons it didn't succeed.

This experience left me pondering, and I'm curious to hear from you all: What projects have you worked on that seemed promising or even groundbreaking during the development phase but didn't succeed in the market or with users for one reason or another? What was the project about, what made it seem promising initially, and ultimately, what led to its downfall?

More importantly, what do you think were the reasons for the failure? Was it a matter of timing, market fit, execution, or perhaps something else entirely? How did this experience influence your approach to future projects?

I believe that by sharing these stories and the reasons behind the failures, we can provide valuable insights and lessons for all of us, especially for those in the software engineering and development fields. It's a chance to reflect on the unpredictable nature of tech projects and the importance of resilience in our industry.

Looking forward to hearing your stories and learning from your experiences!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39863684

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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39863684