Re:Ask HN: How much software do you build for yourself these...
by markmatsushima on Friday July 24, 2026 @11:58PM
(#49044388)
I made a tool that extracts text from PDFs and translates it into Japanese with an LLM, mainly to help me study English documents.
A tiny frustration can now be enough motivation to build software, because you can just tell an LLM what you want.
In my case, I was frustrated with repeatedly asking chat AIs to “translate the next part” or “continue” when translating long documents. I also wanted almost word-by-word translation rather than completely smooth Japanese, because my purpose was to understand the original English.
Paid software probably has more features and works better, but using software I made for myself is more fun.
A tiny frustration can now be enough motivation to build software, because you can just tell an LLM what you want.
In my case, I was frustrated with repeatedly asking chat AIs to “translate the next part” or “continue” when translating long documents. I also wanted almost word-by-word translation rather than completely smooth Japanese, because my purpose was to understand the original English.
Paid software probably has more features and works better, but using software I made for myself is more fun.