Live data from Hacker News

How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

laurentiugabriel.github.io

1–10 of 559 posts

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#2
The title is not representing what the post is about. “Use LLM to learn complex topics” here actually means that the author asks an agent to describe the problem area, and then implement a simple web-based simulation game, and by playing that game, the author actually learns about the topic and its constraints. They use chip making as an example.

That's actually a fun way to learn processes!

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#3
post #2

The title is not representing what the post is about. “Use LLM to learn complex topics” here actually means that the author asks an agent to describe the problem area, and then implement a simple web-based simulation game, and by playing that game, the author actually learns about the topic and its constraints. They use chip making as an example. That's actually a fun way to learn processes!

Thanks! The original title was "How I use LLMs to learn...", but somehow HN removed the "How" part. I even removed the initial post thinking it was a typo on my end and tried to post again, but I stumbled upon the same behavior.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#5
post #2

The title is not representing what the post is about. “Use LLM to learn complex topics” here actually means that the author asks an agent to describe the problem area, and then implement a simple web-based simulation game, and by playing that game, the author actually learns about the topic and its constraints. They use chip making as an example. That's actually a fun way to learn processes!

Thanks! The original title was "How I use LLMs to learn...", but somehow HN removed the "How" part. I even removed the initial post thinking it was a typo on my end and tried to post again, but I stumbled upon the same behavior.

HN likes to remove “How” and “Why” from titles. You need to edit them back right after you post it

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#6
> What you get is a beautiful animation that is 100% accurate and free of hallucinations.

How do you know if you're learning this for the first time? Very risky to learn from LLMs. I've done it, but you have to keep your wits about you. Lots of "oh of course you're right - what I just told you was completely wrong".

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#7
post #2

The title is not representing what the post is about. “Use LLM to learn complex topics” here actually means that the author asks an agent to describe the problem area, and then implement a simple web-based simulation game, and by playing that game, the author actually learns about the topic and its constraints. They use chip making as an example. That's actually a fun way to learn processes!

Its fun but is it really effective ? I mean I checked the LLM one and I came out more confused about a topic I already know about, I find the best way to to learn using LLMs is to just generate an example try to somewhat get a mental model of how it works and then ground my understanding with traditional documentation and resources, its an iteration of a technique I used to do in college where I would read the textbook questions first to understand what is important and then read the chapter

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#8
I’ve been using LLMs to create readable rewrites of RFCs and specs that interest me. It is not precise enough for implementation use, but it has increased my understanding of the underlying RFC.

Another useful approach has been asking Codex to implement complex things, like a Kademlia DHT or BitTorrent client in a literate style with the explicit purpose to increase understanding by reviewing the source code.

Examples: https://rickcarlino.com/notes/note-dump-and-ai-summaries/ind...

https://github.com/RickCarlino/tiny-bt

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#9
YouTube has so many truly wonderful videos on chip production. I admire your approach but it seems like a lot of people are in this ai maxxing phase where they reach for ai for everything despite their being ready, high quality things already available for free
Post reply on HN