Decibel #20

Some things from around the internet I consumed this week and found interesting:

1. Homemade SAR Drone (project writeup)
2. LLM Code Generation Workflow (practical llm usage tips)
3. On Grief (Essay)


1. Homemade SAR Drone

I love the incredibly detailed write up on this project. There is a curiosity and tenacity to this kind of 10 month project that I appreciate. The dedication shines brightly. It’s especially cool to see the deep dives on varied facets of the projects — mechanical, radar algorithms, radio design, signal processing, circuit board designs.

2. LLM Code Generation Workflow

LLM’s capabilities depend a lot on how you interface with them. I found this walkthrough of how Harper Reed uses LLMs for making code to be a useful read.

Step 1: use a conversational LLM to hone a specification (→ save to spec.md)
Step 2: use a reasoning LLM to draft a plan and break it down into steps (→ save to prompt_plan.md)

Step 3: Pair program with claude using the steps from part 2.

I tried to emulate his process on a little game simulator project and found that I ran into Claude’s usage limits before I could finish the end of the brainstorm. I will have to try again with ChatGPT 4o, pick a smaller project, or find a way to more compactly discuss all of details of the project.

3. Andrew Connor on Grief

I didn’t expect to be crying this afternoon but here I am. Thanks Connor for the beautiful words and ideas shared.

I love how the form of the essay itself with lots of short sentences mirrors the intensity and awareness brought by the grief.

Instead of more of my words I recommend you go read his.

Until next time.

-Alex