
# Introduction

It's been a bit more than 48 hours since we added the Hacktoberfest label to [Hopp's](https://github.com/gethopp/hopp) repo, and all 3 PRs we received seem AI generated. This made me feel sad, not annoyed or disappointed, just sad.

# The Role of AI in Coding

Don't get me wrong, I am not against AI-assisted coding, I use it myself daily nowadays. I like that:
* I don't have to type everything (though the tab completion can sometimes be annoying). Of course, I didn't type all [these lines](https://github.com/gethopp/rust-sdks/blob/4102a6be571f2106e020699b60aaaf1684953d3b/libwebrtc/src/native/desktop_capturer.rs#L53-L124) manually.
* I have something to ping-pong ideas with or get faster help on how to "properly" do something in a language.

Also, I wouldn't mind if the PRs were AI generated but the contributors understood what they were doing. The issue here is that it seems they had no idea what the AI did and didn't even read our code.

# Missing the Point of Hacktoberfest

The problem with AI contributions in Hacktoberfest is that, in my opinion, these people **are missing the point** of the event.

The whole month should be about exploring new things (a new project, a new language, a new framework, etc.), collaborating with strangers, learning, and having fun. None of these are gained when instructing Claude to fix an issue or implement a feature.

To me, it feels surreal that with open source we can collaborate with people from all over the world, people we have never met, and create something together.

It's not about having as many contributions as possible, but about **celebrating** open source and collaboration.

# The Creative Side of Software Engineering

Building software is like art to me. We get to create something from nothing with our bare hands (fingers 😅). Something that doesn't exist anywhere else other than our minds. Like a painter, a musician, a writer, a sculptor, etc.

I went to a Picasso exhibition during the weekend, and they had a screening where he was painting in real time. After he was doing it for many hours, they asked if he was tired, and he said, "No, I can continue for much longer, I am just having fun.". This is the ideal feeling people should have when building software.
And this is how I feel when I am spending whole days in front of my computer and even forgetting to eat
or drink water (though I shouldn't do this).

![A cat sitting on a computer](/images/cat_in_computer.gif)

I get that is is boring sometimes, I feel the same. But I think it was the same for Picasso. I noticed that he was reusing the same faces, shapes, and techniques again and again in this "live" session, which I don't think was fun for him either.

# The Risk of Losing Human Creativity

By forgetting this and just focusing on the end goal, we are missing all the fun and killing our creativity. Of course, even before AI, people were seeing software engineering as just a way to make money or have a stable, well-paid job.

Not everyone feels the way I do, which is understandable and makes sense. The problem I see now is that we might head to a world flooded with AI-generated PRs and lost human creativity.

# Conclusion

Like someone said: "It is not about the destination, it is about the journey." If you want to discuss this further, feel free to reach out to me on [x/Twitter](https://x.com/iparaskev). Also if you want to contribute to the best OSS pair programming app, have a look at our [good first issues](https://github.com/gethopp/hopp/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3A%22Good%20first%20issue%22).


Hacktoberfest shouldn't be AI generated PRs


Hi there! 👋

After over a year of working on **Flightsmeet**, I found myself hitting a wall in terms of monetization. While Flightsmeet is still up and running, helping nearly 60 people each week find destinations to meet with their friends and family, I felt it was time for a new challenge.

During the summer of 2024, I had a conversation with my good friend Costa ([check out his blog](https://blog.alexoglou.com/)) about starting a side project together. Costa suggested building a **desktop app for remote pair programming**, and the idea immediately piqued my interest.

At first, I was hesitant. This project didn’t align with my strategy of quickly validating ideas and iterating based on early feedback—it would require significant upfront development. However, I saw the potential and unique value in creating an **open-source, high-quality alternative** to the closed-source remote pair programming tools currently available.

By August 2024, we decided to take the plunge and start building **Hopp**. After months of hard work, we’re thrilled to announce that Hopp is ready to welcome beta users! 🚀

### What is Hopp?

**Hopp** is a next-gen screen-sharing tool for programmers that enables you to pair program as if you’re on the same machine—no matter where you are. Both participants get full keyboard and mouse control, making real-time collaboration seamless.

To achieve this, we:

- Fine-tuned **libwebrtc** for ultra-low latency.
- Built on **LiveKit’s network** for unmatched speed and reliability.

If you’ve ever been frustrated with tools like Slack Huddles, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams for pairing, Hopp was built for you. You can learn more about the tool on our website: [gethopp.app](https://gethopp.app/).

### Why Hopp?

While excellent tools like Tuple exist, they are closed-source, which limits flexibility and community-driven innovation. We’re building Hopp to address this gap—an **open-source, developer-first pairing tool** that’s blazing fast, reliable, and gives developers full control.

In the spirit of open source, we’re even allowing users to bring their own LiveKit keys to reduce costs and customize their experience.

### What’s Next?

We’re rolling out early access and onboarding beta users in waves to gather feedback and refine the tool. While many features are still missing compared to competitors, we’ve built a solid foundation to create an exceptional alternative to existing solutions.

If you’re interested, you can **join the waiting list** on our website and help us shape the future of remote pair programming.

Thanks for reading, and I’m excited to share this journey with you. Let’s build something great together!



Introducing Hopp: A New Chapter in My Indie Hacking Journey


I have been building FlightsMeet for almost 7 months now and I am planning
make my first ever launch in the following weeks.

The first decision I had to make was which programming languages I am going to
use, should I use a different language for the frontend and the backend, should I use
the same. Should I use a language I am familiar with for the backend.

When I decided I am going to build my first ever product I had to make technical decisions
which were new to me as it was the first time I was building a web app. The first
questions I had to find answers were the following:
1. Which language I am going to use for the backend?
2. Which language and framework I am going to use for the frontend?
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For the first question there were two possible answers, one to use python which I am
familiar with and I know I could build something relative quickly, two use Rust
which I want to learn but sacrifice speed and efficiency. Looking at those two options the sane answer is
obvious, go with python as learning a new language for the frontend is already a big
task that will take a lot of my time. Going with two new languages when you want to build a product
will be a huge obstacle in the future. We humans don't always make the most logical decisions though, and
me as a human I didn't do it this time. I went with Rust because the main reason I decided to do this
whole thing from the start was to learn, also I believe in Rust's memory safety and programming model and think that
once I learn it, it will be much easier for me to build other products in the future, which
will have less bugs. I know this wasn't the right decision and
probably if I had gone with python I would have written the backend's first version in much less
time than the 2 and something months it took me to write it.
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\
For the second question I was thinking whether I should go with Javascript or Typescript. Javascript
would allow me to iterate a bit faster but Typescript would help me to catch more bugs shipping
as it is statically typed. This time I went with speed and chose Javascript, in retrospect I think
I should have gone with Typescript. I might migrate (maybe pay for GPT-4 for that)
the codebase to Typescript in the future but
we all know that this time consuming and probably won't happen, so I will go with Typescript on my
next product.
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As for the framework I went with Next JS. I could say that I chose it to deliver a seamless and responsive user experience,
but the truth is I chose it because this is what my friend is using.


With which technologies FlightsMeet is built


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\
I know that I said I will give more technical details for FlightsMeet this week but
I think it deserves a proper introduction first before diving in the details of my
indie hacking development journey.
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\
A bit of background first. My girlfriend and I have been living in two different countries for the past
two and half years and in order to see each other we travel quite frequently, in particular
each one of us visits the other once every three weeks (this is possible thanks to
low cost airlines in Europe). Although having a long distance relationship sucks we decided to
approach this as an
opportunity to visit more places in Europe, as we are already traveling every three weeks,
every now and then we could try to go to a third place. The first time we wanted to organize
this trip we quickly faced the problem of having to manually search an economical destination
that we could fly and return to/from our bases. We managed to find
a destination, Bologna, and we had an amazing time there.
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\
![Bologna](/images/bologna.jpeg)
\
A few months later I was
thinking that I want to try indie hacking but I didn't know what to build. Then my girlfriend came up
with the idea of a web app that helps you find common
destinations from two different airports. So I started building FlightsMeet.
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\
[FlightsMeet](http://www.flightsmeet.io/) is the tool you needed when you
were planning a trip with your best friend/partner/parents/siblings who live in a
different city. FlightsMeet is a web-based platform that helps you to
find the ideal meeting point for your next adventure, the ideal could be different
from person to person, and this is why FlightsMeet allows you to choose based on the
combined price, the desired location or the duration of the flights.
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\
FlightsMeet is built on top of the Kiwi Tequila API, which provides comprehensive flight search data,
ensuring that you get the best flight options available.
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\
Here's how FlightsMeet works:
* Enter your preferred travel dates and departure cities and press search.
* FlightsMeet generates a list of common destinations and a list of all the outbound and
return flights for this destination.
* Choose your preferred destination and flights and then press book to book your flights on the Kiwi
website.
* Plan the rest of your trip together with ease!
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\
FlightMeet is not yet online but I want to show you a sneak peek of the app.
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This is the search page:
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![Search Page](/images/entry_page.jpeg)
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Follows an in progress search:
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![In progress Search](/images/search_screenshot.jpeg)
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And finally the results page:
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![Results](/images/results.jpeg)
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FlightsMeet is the perfect solution for anyone looking to meet up with friends or loved ones in a new and
exciting location. Whether you're planning a romantic getaway, a family vacation, or a group trip with friends,
FlightsMeet makes it easy to find the perfect meeting point.

Introducing FlightsMeet: The Tool for Finding Common Destinations from Two Different Airports


One day I was talking with a friend of mine who is an indie hacker and
has two successful web apps, he
told me that he rejected a part time job offer because he didn't want to
give to the company three days of his week. This struck me and I couldn't stop thinking of it
for days, my friend has the **freedom to choose where and how he is spending his time**.
\
\
The more I was thinking this the more appealing was becoming the idea of
sustaining my lifestyle by working on my own projects. It is not that I don't like
my job, on the contrary I enjoy it a lot and I am very grateful for it. But the idea
of not selling my time to someone else and having complete control over it couldn't
escape my mind.
\
\
I know that this is not an easy task, and that it comes with a lot of challenges and
pressure that you don't have when you are working at a 9-5 job. When you are a solopreneur, you
have to wear multiple hats at the same time and this might mean doing things that you
don't enjoy that much, compared for example with just doing engineering. Also, you have
to build a product that people want to use and are willing to pay for, which definitely
is not an easy task. But if you manage to do it, it must be a very rewarding feeling
(at least this is what my friend told me). I get it, every success is 100% on you, and
at the same time every failure is 100% on you. To be completely honest,
I don't know if indie hacking is something that fits me, as generally I am a risk
averse person and the safety of a 9-5 job is something that gives me peace of mind.
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\
Nevertheless, I decided that this is something that I am willing to try since the benefits
outweigh the risks. But, as an embedded software engineer, I lack a lot of the skills
necessary to build a web app from scratch, I am missing skills like marketing, sales,
web design, web development, etc. So, last September I decided to start building a
web app in my free time in order to acquire these skills, and to learn by doing.
Other than learning this process will help me to understand whether I like indie hacking or not.
\
\
This app is called [FlightsMeet](http://www.flightsmeet.io/) and is a web app that helps you find
outbound and return flights to common
destinations starting from two different airports. Imagine that you and your best friend are
living in different countries and you want to go on a trip together on specific dates.
In order to find a common destination, you have to check the flights from both of your cities
and find a destination suitable for both of you. At the same time you want to find something
that is not too expensive for both of you.
This is a very time consuming task and FlightsMeet aims to solve this problem.
I will share the details and screenshots from the current state of the app in next week's post.
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\
The reason I decided to solve this problem is that I have been in this situation many times as
my partner and I are living in different countries for the past two and a half years. So this is
a win win situation for me, I get to solve a problem that I have and I get to experiment with
indie hacking.
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\
I have been building FlightsMeet for the past 6 months and now I have a working prototype which
I am planning to launch in the next few weeks. I will be writing a blog post every week about
what I did the previous and what I am planning to do the next. I am hoping this will add a
sense of accountability and will help to keep me motivated.
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\
That's all for now. In next week's post I will talk about the technical details of the app,
like which languages and frameworks I am using, which APIs I am using, etc. Also, I
will post screenshots of the current state of the app and explain which features I
am planning to add in the next few weeks before launching it.
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\
I hope you enjoyed reading this, feel free to connect with me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/iparaskev)
(I know that I am not very active on Twitter, but I am planning to change that in the next few weeks).
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See you next week,\
Cheers!


Iason Paraskevopoulos

Blog