Jeff Gardner

Builder, full-stack dev, health nut, proud dad x4.

Building @calorik_ai, the world's simplest food tracker.

Always learning and sharing as I go.

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

This is what I'm working towards:

Work is a hobby and I do it because it fulfills me and brings satisfaction. It is one of many fulfilling activities that I do often. I have the freedom to work when, where, and how I want.

I've got a ways to go but I'm getting closer every day.

[Calorik @calorik_ai]

Calorik is so accurate at tracking meals with one photo, it got my lunch accurate to 6 calories according to the recipe card

[Calorik @calorik_ai]

Beginners: try this 7-day micro-habit. Snap your meal in Calorik. That’s it. Day 1 starts today.

https://t.co/NP6kUpiZAk

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

@dennisbuildsx This bugged me too. For some reason they seem to map both CMD-K and SHIFT-CMD-K to the inline edit functionality. I went into the hotkey config and removed SHIFT-CMD-K so delete line works again.

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

@FitFounder We are cooking something at @calorik_ai! Currently focused on tracking macros against goals with some light coaching, but we plan to expand the coaching component in the near future. This thread is 🥇

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

This is hilarious and crazy and awesome, but also terrifying to think of maintaining something like this.

Don't think we're all built to run projects this way but more power to him.

Just goes to say that it doesn't need to be "elegant", it just needs to solve the problem.

[@levelsio @levelsio]

@ihorvorotnov @alex_zooni Photo AI is 30,000+ lines in index.php

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

Even though it's tempting to just have AI do everything, there is some stuff it still isn't great at.

Luckily there are often other tools that can fill those gaps! In this case an RPA approach was much faster and more effective.

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

Here was my problem:

@manusai isn't great at captchas. And sites with captchas seem to know when traffic is coming from AI agents––they always show the captcha.

This prevented me from automating a tedious cold outreach flow through a directory site.

Here's how I solved it:

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

I tried using @manusai to automate cold outreach via a directory site for dietitians and nutritionists.

I could do this manually but it would be very tedious as the site doesn't list email addresses, it only provides forms for contacting the individuals.

A perfect test case for @manusai!

Result: 😞

🟩 The good: even though it was pretty slow (I am on the Starter plan, not sure if this improves on the Pro plan), it actually did follow instructions fairly well to navigate the site and fill in the form fields including a lightly personalized message.

🟥 The bad: Manus sucks at captchas.

It didn't reliably know which tiles to click to solve the captcha, or when it should keep clicking or submit the puzzle.

I was able to tell it to stop and wait for instructions on which tiles to click, but this was even more tedious than doing it myself 😫 It has to think for like 10 seconds before each click and the directory site requires a captcha on each form submission so there was no escaping it.

I pivoted my approach and am having it compile data on the listings instead, and will look at using a browser automation tool to try to automate as much of the copy/pasting as possible. Will still likely have to solve the captchas myself but hopefully that's the bulk of it!

Will report back later with results!

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

Requires you to babysit it a bit in order to solve the captchas, but much faster and less tedious than doing it all manually.

I did this first run with nutritionists from one city, and this process should be repeatable for other cities on the directory.

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

RPA = Robotic Process Automation

How did browser automation tools get such a cool name?

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

Is @manusai the right tool for something like this, or is there something better out there?

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

I tried using @manusai to automate cold outreach via a directory site for dietitians and nutritionists.

I could do this manually but it would be very tedious as the site doesn't list email addresses, it only provides forms for contacting the individuals.

A perfect test case for @manusai!

Result: 😞

🟩 The good: even though it was pretty slow (I am on the Starter plan, not sure if this improves on the Pro plan), it actually did follow instructions fairly well to navigate the site and fill in the form fields including a lightly personalized message.

🟥 The bad: Manus sucks at captchas.

It didn't reliably know which tiles to click to solve the captcha, or when it should keep clicking or submit the puzzle.

I was able to tell it to stop and wait for instructions on which tiles to click, but this was even more tedious than doing it myself 😫 It has to think for like 10 seconds before each click and the directory site requires a captcha on each form submission so there was no escaping it.

I pivoted my approach and am having it compile data on the listings instead, and will look at using a browser automation tool to try to automate as much of the copy/pasting as possible. Will still likely have to solve the captchas myself but hopefully that's the bulk of it!

Will report back later with results!

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

@thisiskp_ @boltdotnew @supabase @Netlify Sounds like a zero day

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

@EndorphinSleep @FitFounder Snoring is a good point. Most people have the wrong pillow which I assume is at least part of potential back pain.

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

@FitFounder Better than sleeping on your back? The proper pillow type is important but probably easier to get it right on your back.

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

I tried using @manusai to automate cold outreach via a directory site for dietitians and nutritionists.

I could do this manually but it would be very tedious as the site doesn't list email addresses, it only provides forms for contacting the individuals.

A perfect test case for @manusai!

Result: 😞

🟩 The good: even though it was pretty slow (I am on the Starter plan, not sure if this improves on the Pro plan), it actually did follow instructions fairly well to navigate the site and fill in the form fields including a lightly personalized message.

🟥 The bad: Manus sucks at captchas.

It didn't reliably know which tiles to click to solve the captcha, or when it should keep clicking or submit the puzzle.

I was able to tell it to stop and wait for instructions on which tiles to click, but this was even more tedious than doing it myself 😫 It has to think for like 10 seconds before each click and the directory site requires a captcha on each form submission so there was no escaping it.

I pivoted my approach and am having it compile data on the listings instead, and will look at using a browser automation tool to try to automate as much of the copy/pasting as possible. Will still likely have to solve the captchas myself but hopefully that's the bulk of it!

Will report back later with results!

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

@FitFounder I sincerely doubt it!

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

@FitFounder Too many people are waiting for others to solve their problems. You'll be amazed at how far you can get when you simply control what you can control.

[Jeff Gardner @jeffgardnerdev]

@marckohlbrugge I see what you did there