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Extra-steps.dev – AI hype mapped to CS primitives

Extra-steps.dev – AI hype mapped to CS primitives

by funemployed·Feb 19, 2026·2 points·2 comments
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AI Analysis

●●SolidBig BrainNiche Gem
The Take

Each entry uses the blunt formula “X is just Y with extra steps” and ships expandable pseudocode plus citations, which makes it shockingly useful for clarifying debates in product or architecture meetings. The origins pages (Docker, Kubernetes, MCP) show historical depth instead of mere snark, so it feels like a tiny citadel of common-sense explanations rather than another buzzword glossary.

Category
Education
Target Audience

Software engineers, ML engineers, product managers and execs who need to cut through AI hype

Post Description

I built a reference site that maps AI marketing buzzwords to the CS primitives underneath them. Every entry follows the same format: "X is just Y with extra steps."

MCP? JSON-RPC over stdio. Agents? A while loop with an LLM call. RAG? A search index + string concatenation. Prompt engineering? natural language + markdown

The site has an origins section for buzzwords that already graduated — Docker (cgroups + namespaces), Kubernetes (reconciliation loops watching YAML), Serverless (someone else's process on someone else's computer). And of course, BrandonM's 2007 comment on the Dropbox YC demo.

Each entry has expandable pseudocode on the index page, detailed breakdowns with citations on the detail pages.

The motivation: I keep having conversations at work where a product executive suggests that we "orchestrate APIs using MCP" or asks about implementing "agentic memory" in our web apps and the fastest path to a productive conversation is showing them the code underneath the buzzword. I wanted a community-based reference site like caniuse or mdn that I loved when learning to code. I couldn't find one, so I built one.

14 entries so far. Static Astro site, open source, PRs welcome.

https://extra-steps.dev

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