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How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

laurentiugabriel.github.io

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Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#181

Post by SchemaLoad »

copperx wrote: post #53
8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

It's much better to feed the book to the LLM and ask questions as you read along, instead of asking the LLM to basically write a custom book for you from scratch.

Even with the latest models today, the hallucination rate is absurdly high on anything deeper than surface level knowledge or something that can be directly scraped from reddit.

And you notice when it's a topic you know well or something like software where you can immediately tell the options it's giving you don't exist on the page. Leading to the amusing statement "LLMs are bad at what I do but great at everything else".

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#182

Post by andy99 »

runarberg wrote: post #139
8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

AI hater here. Too me this story is all to predictable. This is exactly how I thought using LLMs to learn would go. Or in simpler terms: well duh . I'm actually going to make a prediction here as well. I think you will soon realize that using LLMs to clarify certain questions or ideas you have will turn out to have frustrations as well. And that you will soon direct those questions to either peers you know in real li…

> I'm actually going to make a prediction here as well. I think you will soon realize that using LLMs to clarify certain questions or ideas you have will turn out to have frustrations as well.

Much more likely that people will believe themselves to be an expert in a subject after having had a conversation with Claude about it.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#183

Post by copperx »

arbitrary_name wrote: post #144
copperx wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much better to feed the book to the LLM and ask questions as you read along, instead of asking the LLM to basically write a custom book for you from scratch.

dumb question, but what is the best way to feed the book to the llm? i run into context window limits, or practical limitations of digitizing the book

You need a non DRMd copy of the book. You don't have to feed it all at once, although with a 1M context limit it is doable. A few chapters at a time is enough, in my experience. An easy alternative is using NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook), and that has worked brilliantly for me, but I haven't tested it for technical topics (for that I like the LLM to create graphs and e.g. interact with Mathematica, so I haven't tried it).

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#184

Post by arvid-lind »

eyepea2007 wrote: post #151
tclancy wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a reference to Bernard Shaw, who once said that if we ever created a truly artificial mind it would be inside a turtle’s shell. Sturgill Simpson covered the track on his seminal work, Xeno’s Paradox.

an LLM tells me there is no evidence that Bernard Shaw ever said any such thing :)

It's Sturgill Simpson all the way down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_All_the_Way_Down_(song...

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#185

Post by esalman »

agumonkey wrote: post #123
8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

anybody adds some prologue about what style of answers are prefered ? i know i often try to change the linguistic patterns because i too (unsurprisingly) am tired of llm prose.

I've heard people promoting LLM to use ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English with some improvement.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#186

Post by adastra22 »

cromka wrote: post #179
andy99 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sycophancy is also a concern, it’s not really an impartial teacher, all its training is to suck up and maximize engagement rather than learning. The incentives are wrong.

> all its training is to suck up and maximize engagement rather than learning That's speculative, isn't it

No, that's a direct consequence (intended or not) of how RLHF works.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#187

Post by j45 »

j45 wrote: post #128
8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

You can change the prose that it outputs to anything you like. ask the llm how.

Specifically, you can set the tone and style to match what you like or used to after asking it to interview you, create an output, and then use that output as the project description or document to refer to

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#188

Post by malfist »

trueno wrote: post #103
copperx wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much better to feed the book to the LLM and ask questions as you read along, instead of asking the LLM to basically write a custom book for you from scratch.

i threw the entire sanderson cosmere into a RAG graph sorta deal just to see how it would do if i questioned an mcp server for it about a universe i know decently well. it was actually astoundingly good. was able to find easter eggs acrossed different books and answer dumb questions like "why is kaladin emo"

If you don't know why kaladin is emo, did you truly read the books lol. Every character has to deal with the stresses of war and most don't come equipped with good mental health to begin with, they're just normal people

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#189

Post by 63stack »

wxw wrote: post #31

> What you get is a beautiful animation that is 100% accurate and free of hallucinations. I'm not sure I follow how this is actually guaranteed? The fact-checking process mentioned just seems to involve asking AI to review its own work.

You can add "make no mistakes" to the end of the prompt and achieve the same result while burning less tokens.
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