TL;DR
What did davidron use Gemini for?
Tired of articles stretched out with filler, a Hacker News reader built a Gemini Gem that compresses them back down, shared its output on a long engineering post and offered the Gem to others. They say it worked well on that article, and another reader asked to try the Gem.
What they did
They set up a custom Gem in Gemini whose job is to take an article padded out by AI writing and squeeze it back to the essentials. They ran a long engineering blog post through it and shared the result link in the discussion.
How it went
They say it worked well on that article, and another reader asked to try the Gem.
Worth knowing
- A condensed version can drop caveats or numbers that matter, so open the original for anything you plan to act on or quote.
- Price check: Google Gemini: free plan; Google AI Plus: US$4.99/month (checked Nov 1, 2026).
Try it yourself
Paste this into a chatbot, then add your own details underneath.
(In Gemini, create a new Gem with these instructions.) "When I paste an article or link, rewrite it at about a quarter of the length. Keep every concrete fact, number, example and caveat. Cut repetition, filler, hype and generic intros. End with a 3-bullet summary. Don't add anything that isn't in the original."
Original post
See davidron's original post on Hacker News → (Aug 9, 2026)
Sources
- davidron on Hacker News, Aug 9, 2026 — the original post
- Google Gemini pricing — checked Nov 1, 2026