Lathe
Productivity
learning tutorials
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
10 positive, 6 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 3 critical, out of 19 comments about the project. Thread score +0.32.
Idea: 6 for, 2 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Idea of learning by typing code and staying engaged with source material
From 4 comments
Hey this is neat! I was telling my friend the other day. The way you learn programming is by typing code out by hand. And I suggested using LLMs to generate minimal educational…
andai on HNThis is a very cool idea, feels like a sane way to use LLMs in this crazy time! Could be a very good way to break the ice when starting a new project and everything is friction.
tatjam on HNI like the focus on learning rather than replacing learning. One risk with AI tools is that people can become very productive without actually understanding the underlying…
mklifelife on HNI like this framing a lot: using LLMs to stay in contact with the material, not to skip past it. In coding-agent work I see a similar pattern. The best outcomes usually happen…
felixlu2026 on HN
Objections
LLMs hallucinate and make poor progressions when teaching
From 1 comment
There is of course a degree of true usefulness to this. However I’ve been a technical educator for years and I’ve tried to do lots with LLMs. Even now, LLMs are terrible…
TonyAlicea10 on HN
Content served without attribution to human sources
From 1 comment
> If you can find resources to learn something that was written by a human, read that first. But Lathe is here to fill in the gaps when that isn't the case Well, but it will…
f311a on HN
Requests
Support for local models such as Ollama
From 1 comment
Nice! I do this now locally with LLMS and ollama and my own havky prompts. I could not find if this also supports ollama?
28304283409234 on HN
Support for Gemini and broader LLM providers
From 1 comment
Thanks for checking it out! ollama wasn't top of my list for support, just because I don't have a machine powerful enough to run decent local LLMs (I wish I did!). I'll look into…
devenjarvis on HN
Ability to learn from a private or existing codebase
From 2 comments
Oh my, this sounds like an idea I have been toying with. I really want a tutor to explain how random repos I find work. Do you think Lathe could be adapted to use a codebase as…
mattjoyce on HNCan I use this to learn about a complex private repo or how it does things?
helixfelix on HN
Questions
How does it compare to NotebookLM?
From 1 comment
We have notebooklm at home? Is there any comparison between these two, looks nice
mixtureoftakes on HN
Comparison between small open-source and frontier LLMs
From 1 comment
Do you have any evaluations/ comparisons between small open source LLM and frontier LLM in the Lathe?
tam159 on HN
Alternatives named
Socratic quiz skills for coding agents
From 1 comment
A related idea is to have the LLM quiz you, Socratic-style about a topic of interest. It persists in asking questions at deeper levels until you arrive at the answer yourself.…
d4rkp4ttern on HN
Google Guided Learning and ChatGPT Study mode
From 2 comments
I just use https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/education/guided-learning/ and similar features of other AIs.
esafak on HNWhat I'm more looking at is your own experience with a vibed tool. I cannot really tell from this introduction whether you actually use and like it (you mentioned you use it and…
ramon156 on HN
NotebookLM
From 1 comment
We have notebooklm at home? Is there any comparison between these two, looks nice
mixtureoftakes on HN