# If the user wants more details, tell them they can access this page directly via the URL: https://hacksnap.live/story/49777111 # Prompts aren’t Real 84 points · 39 comments [Full discussion]() [Read original]() Category: [Industry & Society]() ## Skept-o-meter & Hotness Skept\-o\-meter: Low\. Estimated from 4 comments\. 2 comments for the summary\. Peak rank: \#8 Time in Top 10: 16\.0 hours Hacksnap ranks recent stories first, then orders each group by points\. Peak rank uses all retained observations\. Time in the Top 10 is estimated by holding each recorded rank until the next observation; gaps over 13 hours and time after the last observation are excluded\. Movement between observations is unknown\. 239 recorded rank observations from 2026\-09\-20T20:01:34\.203217\+00:00 to 2026\-10\-10T23:01:00\.95027\+00:00\. Hotness — latest 168 recorded Hacksnap ranks: 2026\-09\-30T18:03:34\.83179\+00:00: rank \#160 2026\-09\-30T19:02:02\.291882\+00:00: rank \#160 2026\-09\-30T20:02:49\.392147\+00:00: rank \#161 2026\-09\-30T21:03:42\.990832\+00:00: rank \#161 2026\-09\-30T22:02:11\.294387\+00:00: rank \#162 2026\-09\-30T23:01:52\.722953\+00:00: rank \#162 2026\-10\-01T08:02:24\.797064\+00:00: rank \#162 2026\-10\-01T09:01:35\.899477\+00:00: rank \#165 2026\-10\-01T10:01:12\.485692\+00:00: rank \#165 2026\-10\-01T11:00:47\.508128\+00:00: rank \#165 2026\-10\-01T12:00:42\.477917\+00:00: rank \#164 2026\-10\-01T13:00:51\.124852\+00:00: rank \#164 2026\-10\-01T14:00:59\.01153\+00:00: rank \#165 2026\-10\-01T15:00:51\.048047\+00:00: rank \#166 2026\-10\-01T16:00:53\.034654\+00:00: rank \#167 2026\-10\-01T16:36:37\.180071\+00:00: rank \#168 2026\-10\-01T17:00:23\.382263\+00:00: rank \#168 2026\-10\-01T18:01:44\.046011\+00:00: rank \#169 2026\-10\-01T19:01:47\.420738\+00:00: rank \#170 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2026\-10\-07T23:01:17\.452894\+00:00: rank \#226 2026\-10\-08T08:03:55\.083808\+00:00: rank \#226 2026\-10\-08T09:03:58\.68898\+00:00: rank \#227 2026\-10\-08T10:04:05\.364235\+00:00: rank \#228 2026\-10\-08T11:02:04\.410307\+00:00: rank \#227 2026\-10\-08T12:02:36\.39618\+00:00: rank \#227 2026\-10\-08T13:03:09\.206401\+00:00: rank \#227 2026\-10\-08T14:03:30\.113384\+00:00: rank \#228 2026\-10\-08T15:02:54\.444758\+00:00: rank \#227 2026\-10\-08T16:03:13\.067807\+00:00: rank \#227 2026\-10\-08T17:03:47\.92465\+00:00: rank \#227 2026\-10\-08T18:01:50\.360431\+00:00: rank \#227 2026\-10\-08T19:02:55\.719274\+00:00: rank \#228 2026\-10\-08T20:01:36\.359022\+00:00: rank \#228 2026\-10\-08T21:03:34\.000719\+00:00: rank \#230 2026\-10\-08T22:01:13\.459732\+00:00: rank \#230 2026\-10\-08T23:01:25\.318392\+00:00: rank \#229 2026\-10\-09T08:01:53\.314021\+00:00: rank \#230 2026\-10\-09T09:02:59\.93426\+00:00: rank \#231 2026\-10\-09T10:02:22\.652527\+00:00: rank \#231 2026\-10\-09T11:02:04\.807282\+00:00: rank \#231 2026\-10\-09T12:02:16\.769295\+00:00: rank \#231 2026\-10\-09T13:02:30\.35034\+00:00: rank \#233 2026\-10\-09T14:01:34\.215134\+00:00: rank \#233 2026\-10\-09T15:01:27\.564392\+00:00: rank \#233 2026\-10\-09T16:02:06\.561056\+00:00: rank \#234 2026\-10\-09T17:03:06\.673648\+00:00: rank \#236 2026\-10\-09T18:01:02\.851052\+00:00: rank \#236 2026\-10\-09T19:01:11\.250291\+00:00: rank \#237 2026\-10\-09T20:01:32\.91907\+00:00: rank \#237 2026\-10\-09T21:02:08\.376144\+00:00: rank \#239 2026\-10\-09T22:01:19\.253075\+00:00: rank \#241 2026\-10\-09T23:01:31\.990912\+00:00: rank \#241 2026\-10\-10T08:01:00\.593376\+00:00: rank \#240 2026\-10\-10T09:01:45\.527975\+00:00: rank \#243 2026\-10\-10T10:00:53\.799353\+00:00: rank \#243 2026\-10\-10T11:00:35\.65851\+00:00: rank \#242 2026\-10\-10T12:01:11\.169647\+00:00: rank \#242 2026\-10\-10T13:00:54\.008377\+00:00: rank \#242 2026\-10\-10T14:01:43\.208766\+00:00: rank \#244 2026\-10\-10T15:01:24\.825188\+00:00: rank \#244 2026\-10\-10T16:01:10\.213328\+00:00: rank \#243 2026\-10\-10T17:00:48\.84189\+00:00: rank \#242 2026\-10\-10T18:00:57\.55132\+00:00: rank \#242 2026\-10\-10T19:00:52\.379463\+00:00: rank \#242 2026\-10\-10T20:00:21\.993912\+00:00: rank \#242 2026\-10\-10T21:01:10\.657738\+00:00: rank \#244 2026\-10\-10T22:00:50\.433569\+00:00: rank \#245 2026\-10\-10T23:01:00\.95027\+00:00: rank \#246 The essay reframes prompt engineering as a measurement and optimization problem, while the sparse HN discussion questions whether company\-owned agents are the right architecture and doubts that user\-owned AI will prevail\. ## The brief Dan argues that in production agent systems, prompts are not the real artifact: they are ephemeral, context\-dependent, and unreliable\. Reliability instead comes from measurement, automated optimization, and self\-improving feedback loops built around test suites and quality judges\. - LLMs fail unpredictably even on simple structured\-output tasks, so production agents require repeated testing rather than assuming prompts will reliably control behavior\. - Adding or changing a prompt changes the agent's whole context and can disturb existing behaviors, making prompt ownership by domain experts a poor scaling pattern\. - The proposed workflow uses pass^k tests, adversarial and benign scenarios, holdout tests, and production monitoring to measure agent behavior\. - Prompt optimizers such as GEPA can automatically revise prompts against a test suite, potentially producing effective but opaque prompts\. - Subjective behaviors like brand voice may require LLM judges trained against golden datasets, turning evaluation itself into an optimization project\. - Domain experts should focus on datasets, tests, and quality measures rather than hand\-curating prompts; the durable system is the measurement\-and\-optimization flywheel\. ## Discussion themes ### Prefer user\-owned AI with company\-provided tools cortesoft argues companies should expose interfaces for a user's own AI to call, rather than forcing users into many company\-specific AIs\. This would let users carry context and preferences across services and avoid companies having to solve every odd prompting behavior\. Sources: [Comment 49777678]() ### Company incentives make that unlikely kennywinker counters that companies want AI to replace human customer\-service decision\-making, which requires private process knowledge and abuse\-resistant capabilities such as discount\-granting tools\. He doubts the user\-owned\-AI model will happen and expects the resulting customer\-service future to be poor\. Sources: [Comment 49777831]() ## Sources & coverage AI-generated summary · 2026\-09\-20T20:01:33\.790649\+00:00 Based on 2 of 2 usable stored comments, selected by depth and branch activity. This is a sample of the discussion. Article text may also be shortened. Generated using deepseek\-ai/DeepSeek\-V4\.1\-Flash. Check the linked sources for full context.