LLMs are like your weird, over-confident intern | Simon Willison (Datasette)
Release Date: 09/10/2024
Podcast update and news!
Software Misadventures
Some reflections on running the podcast and Ronak has some eggciting news to share :) Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
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Oxide co-founders Bryan and Steve are back on the show to give an impromptu peek at the Oxide server rack and to chat about writing their own manufacturing software, overcoming false summits before shipping the first rack, the #1 reason startups fail and more. Don't miss the full-circle moment on their "meet cute" story from last time, shared at the end of the conversation :) Segments: (00:00:00) The Oxide rack uncrating experience (00:02:40) The office tour (00:04:03) Challenges of shipping and unboxing hardware (00:11:04) Hybrid hardware company? (00:13:38) Custom designing a crate...
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LLMs are like your weird, over-confident intern | Simon Willison (Datasette)
Software Misadventures
Known for co-creating Django and Datasette, as well as his thoughtful writing on LLMs, Simon Willison joins the show to chat about blogging as an accountability mechanism, how to build intuition with LLMs, building a startup with his partner on their honeymoon, and more. Segments: (00:00:00) The weird intern (00:01:50) The early days of LLMs (00:04:59) Blogging as an accountability mechanism (00:09:24) The low-pressure approach to blogging (00:11:47) GitHub issues as a system of records (00:16:15) Temporal documentation and design docs (00:18:19) GitHub issues for team collaboration...
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Known for hosting the CoRecursive podcast, which dives into the stories behind the code, Adam joins the show to chat about discovering that the great engineers he had looked up to are actually great communicators, his framework for building one of the best storytelling engineering podcasts, and the journey getting into DevRel. Chapters: (00:00:00) Highlights (00:04:23) The power of casual conversations (00:07:08) Taking the leap into podcasting (00:10:34) The hardest part of running a podcast (00:14:03) Learning to follow up (00:16:26) Storytelling in podcasting (00:20:36) The evolution...
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From building a new kind of server to building a new kind of company, co-founders Bryan and Steve join the show to chat about their "meet cute" and the origin story of Oxide, their unconventional recruiting process, transparent and uniform salaries, and their solution to the "N+1 shithead problem". Segments: (00:03:03) Bryan and Steve's "meet cute" (00:05:56) "the sun does not shine on me" (00:12:19) the dagger that went into sun (00:21:23) culture of exonerating yourself vs solving customer problems (00:23:25) the shared "error in judgment" of joining joyent (00:27:54) the origin story of...
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Having quit Google in 2018 to bootstrap indie software businesses, Michael is known for writing very transparently about the ups and downs of his journey. After recently selling his hardware business TinyPilot for $600K, Michael returns to the show to chat about the misconceptions about running an indie business, the hardest part of selling a company, and why “hardware is definitely out” for his next move 😂 Segments: (00:04:22) The complexity of selling a hardware business (00:08:49) Why "hardware is definitely out" for Michael's next venture (00:11:57) The evolution of TinyPilot...
info_outlineKnown for co-creating Django and Datasette, as well as his thoughtful writing on LLMs, Simon Willison joins the show to chat about blogging as an accountability mechanism, how to build intuition with LLMs, building a startup with his partner on their honeymoon, and more.
Segments:
(00:00:00) The weird intern
(00:01:50) The early days of LLMs
(00:04:59) Blogging as an accountability mechanism
(00:09:24) The low-pressure approach to blogging
(00:11:47) GitHub issues as a system of records
(00:16:15) Temporal documentation and design docs
(00:18:19) GitHub issues for team collaboration
(00:21:53) Copy-paste as an API
(00:26:54) Observable notebooks
(00:28:50) pip install LLM
(00:32:26) The evolution of using LLMs daily
(00:34:47) Building intuition with LLMs
(00:43:24) Democratizing access to automation
(00:47:45) Alternative interfaces for language models
(00:53:39) Is prompt engineering really engineering?
(00:58:39) The frustrations of working with LLMs
(01:01:59) Structured data extraction with LLMs
(01:06:08) How Simon would go about building a LLM app
(01:09:49) LLMs making developers more ambitious
(01:13:32) Typical workflow with LLMs
(01:19:58) Vibes-based evaluation
(01:23:25) Staying up-to-date with LLMs
(01:27:49) The impact of LLMs on new programmers
(01:29:37) The rise of 'Goop' and the future of software development
(01:40:20) Being an independent developer
(01:42:26) Staying focused and accountable
(01:47:30) Building a startup with your partner on the honeymoon
(01:51:30) The responsibility of AI practitioners
(01:53:07) The hidden dangers of prompt injection
(01:53:44) “Artificial intelligence” is really “imitation intelligence”
Show Notes:
Simon’s blog: https://simonwillison.net/
Natalie’s post on them building a startup together: https://blog.natbat.net/post/61658401806/lanyrd-from-idea-to-exit
Simon’s talk from DjangoCon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLkRK2rJGB0
Simon on twitter: https://x.com/simonw
Datasette: https://github.com/simonw/datasette
Stay in touch:
👋 Make Ronak’s day by leaving us a review and let us know who we should talk to next! [email protected]
Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en