Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#111

Post by peteforde » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:41 AM UTC

Last night, I used GPT-4 to help me design a stereo matrix mixer circuit.

First, I used it to help me make sense of the datasheet for a crosspoint matrix IC, and when "we" determined that the IC I was planning to use didn't support some of the functions that were critical to my design goals, it suggested a number of alternative ICs which might work, along with listing potential tradeoffs that might impact my design.

In the process of doing this, I had it make suggestions on how I could use various combinations of resistors and capacitors to buffer (clean up noise) that might impact my signal. At one point, it generated a schematic so that I could see what it was talking about, and it was correct.

At one point, it imagined some functionality on an IC that does not exist, and when I asked it "on a scale of 1 to 11, how confident are you that the AD75019 supports EVR?" (essentially, variable resistance across all 256 crosspoints) and it went back to the datasheet to correct itself, saying "on a scale of 1 to 11, I am 100% confident that it does not support EVR", which is about as sassy as you can get while still being obsequiously polite.

During the entire conversation, it not only suggested that I verify our conclusions with a qualified EE, but kept recommending that I check out existing commercial products. Not because it didn't understand I was building a device, but because it kept telling me that purchasing an existing product would be less painful than the time, expense and difficulty of building my own.

I believe that it was (strongly) implying that my time is valuable and that I should stop while I'm ahead. I ended up ordering an Erica Synths Matrix Mixer today, though I still might build my dream device. I call that productive.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#112

Post by SanderNL » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:49 AM UTC

To me it is most useful when I have a singular issue with a bounded piece of code. Like a method, a single algorithm. A nasty SQL query too sometimes.

I don’t use if often (once a day maybe) but when I do use on problems I know it is good at I get really good answers. Oneliners to things my code is taking 20 loc to do, or some simplification I overlooked. But I have to be careful about what I give it.

I know I am better with architectural issues, but I suck at puzzle-like algorithmic problems. Don’t like them either, feels like a machine should do that and now it does.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#113

Post by nneonneo » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:49 AM UTC

peteforde wrote: post #111

Last night, I used GPT-4 to help me design a stereo matrix mixer circuit. First, I used it to help me make sense of the datasheet for a crosspoint matrix IC, and when "we" determined that the IC I was planning to use didn't support some of the functions that were critical to my design goals, it suggested a number of alternative ICs which might work, along with listing potential tradeoffs that might impact my design.…

I think this is interesting, because it points out the ways in which a future GPT might be subtly trained to embed advertising. "It looks like you're doing X; have you considered a commercial solution, such as Y or Z?".

While you did wind up with a device that probably will suit your need, you also wound up out of a potentially fun hobby project. Not everyone will call that a win :)

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#114

Post by relieferator » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:50 AM UTC

For general troubleshooting, it's helpful to ask things like "How do I troubleshoot a slow OS X finder?" How do I migrate mail messages and calendar items from one Office 365 mailbox to a new Office 365 mailbox with different email address in the same tenant? Can I use group policy to configure certificate based authentication for Microsoft Outlook? Where do I start when trying to renew and replace an api certificate on aws?

Also, for leisure I've been using it for gaming. For example, "Do you know about the survival game Rust (yes)?" Then follow up questions, how many beancan grenades to break a metal door? How long will it take to craft 500 sulfur worth of 9mm ammo? I've learned quite a lot from it but when it said I can use a grappling hook to scale a high external stone wall, I noticed this flaw. There is no grappling hook in prod/vanilla Rust, so I told it so, and it corrected itself to say it may only be available on modded servers.

Also I ask it a lot of medical questions, treatments, symptoms, long term outlooks, over the counter treatments etc.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#115

Post by _nalply » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:51 AM UTC

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #66

jmann99999 wrote: post #15

Generally rewriting emails for clarity... but I found another neat use of GPT-4. For public APIs, I ask to make sure its aware of the api. Then I ask for endpoints. I find the endpoint I want. Then I ask it to code a request to the endpoint in language X (Ruby, Python, Elixir). It then gives me a starting point to jump off from. Thirty seconds of prompt writing saves me about 20 minutes of getting setup. Yes, I have…

> Generally rewriting emails for clarity... This is the sort of thing that will force a lot of legal teams to shutdown access to GPT-4 api/gui from internal networks. Ppl never think of unintended consequences. Ask it a prompt fine but don't provide internal information as an input.

This is one of the causes there's a push to run your own engines for large language models: if you run your own service you can control the environment, data and reproducibility.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#116

Post by eachro » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:54 AM UTC

Is there a big difference between chatgpt and chatgptplus? I use chatgpt for routine things every day (some basic word smithing, looking up how to use libraries, etc) and it is already quite good. What does the 20/mo get me that I don't already get with the free version?

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#117

Post by nneonneo » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:55 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #58

olalonde wrote: post #4

Mostly just asking stuff directly on https://chat.openai.com/chat . Last 8 requests were (all successful): - Asked it to improve a HN comment I wrote. - Asked about an idiom I couldn't remember, by saying it in other words. - Asked it to dumb down some things about options (finance) I didn't understand. - Asked it if I could use the eBay API to list my purchase history (you can, and it knew how). - Asked it to genera…

Asked about an idiom I couldn't remember, by saying it in other words. You inspired me to try it for finding a book I can't quite remember the title of. Unfortunately no joy. Still, for the amusement of anyone who is interested, or anyone who might be able to help me with this book: --- Mindcrime: What was that horror novel from way back when, about the time traveling demon hound? ChatGPT: It's possible that you're t…

Have you tried asking a story-identification question on https://scifi.stackexchange.com/? I've seen quite a few questions on there get answered with even the most obscure books or movies, and your question should fit right in on that site.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#118

Post by euroderf » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:55 AM UTC

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #66

jmann99999 wrote: post #15

Generally rewriting emails for clarity... but I found another neat use of GPT-4. For public APIs, I ask to make sure its aware of the api. Then I ask for endpoints. I find the endpoint I want. Then I ask it to code a request to the endpoint in language X (Ruby, Python, Elixir). It then gives me a starting point to jump off from. Thirty seconds of prompt writing saves me about 20 minutes of getting setup. Yes, I have…

> Generally rewriting emails for clarity... This is the sort of thing that will force a lot of legal teams to shutdown access to GPT-4 api/gui from internal networks. Ppl never think of unintended consequences. Ask it a prompt fine but don't provide internal information as an input.

All your topics of interest are belong to us.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#119

Post by nneonneo » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:58 AM UTC

yosito wrote: post #99

DotaFan wrote: post #79

I think all of our stories will look the same, we all ask about small problems, to get an answer as accurate as possible. It did help me in something else. If someone has a weight problem, you can ask ChatGTP to plan you an eating schedule. I've lost 6kg in 2 months now by eating healthy food. If someone is interested what questions I've asked, I've asked ChatGTP to create me a weekly meal schedule, where for my curr…

That's pretty interesting. I just started using it for tracking my calories. I'm usually overwhelmed by looking up all the calories in all the components of my meal, but if I can just say "I cooked a chicken breast in olive oil, boiled a cup of rice, and put four white button mushrooms in it. How many calories is that?", it saves me a lot of time and effort.

Is it _right_ though? It's not great at arithmetic, nor is it necessarily reliable with the number of calories in any particular ingredient; while the Wolfram plugin promises to make that a bit better, it's still feels like it might be a crapshoot.

Re: Ask HN: How are you using GPT to be productive?

#120

Post by onion2k » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 6:59 AM UTC

I've been using it as a really specific codegen tool. I give it a chunk of a Swagger doc and ask for a TypeScript React hook that validates the API response using zod, and it gets it right pretty much every time. It's nothing I couldn't do myself, but it does it faster.