Week 36 Update: ChatGPT Insights, Hands-On Wisdom, and Building for the Future

Hey LinkedIn Friends and Family,

This week brought some valuable "aha!" moments and a renewed appreciation for the power of simplicity. I recently built a simple console-based ChatGPT client using my F# library, fsEnsemble. It was surprisingly straightforward, and it shows that even powerful tools can be elegant and easy to use.

You can check out the code here and try it yourself (just bring your own OpenAI key): https://github.com/philiplaureano/LLMinster/blob/master/examples/llm-chat.demo.csx

Building this client taught me a crucial lesson about LLMs (large language models): the illusion of persistent conversation. While clients like ChatGPT make it seem like the AI remembers past interactions, the reality is that each query is a "one-shot" request. The client handles the memory, not the LLM itself. This opens up exciting possibilities for my LLMinster project.

Imagine seamlessly switching between different LLM providers – ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic's Claude – mid-conversation, leveraging the strengths of each platform and overcoming usage limitations. That's where I'm heading with LLMinster, and I'm committed to making it a free and accessible tool for everyone.

This week also brought a renewed appreciation for hands-on experience, even for someone that has recently come from a management background. I've spent years in meetings, poring over Jira tickets, and planning sprints, but nothing compares to being in the trenches, solving real-world problems with code. It's easy to lose sight of the day-to-day challenges developers face when you're removed from the technical details. There's simply no substitute for firsthand experience, even for an old-timer like me.

So, what's next for LLMinster? I'm focusing on building a console-based version with persistent conversations and prompt templating. The challenge now is choosing the right frontend framework: Blazor, React, Vue.js, or Angular? It's a classic developer dilemma! I'm leaning towards a simple and familiar approach initially, building a solid foundation that I can expand upon later. The best part is, I'm using an LLM to guide this process, breaking down the project into phases, defining milestones, and even suggesting features. It's an "Inception"-like experience, and it's been incredibly insightful.

And of course, there are those exciting personal milestones on the horizon – my daughter is turning three and a half, and my son is turning seven months old! It's a good reminder that life is about more than just code, and my family means everything to me.

As always, if you're looking for new opportunities or have an interesting project that needs a skilled developer, feel free to reach out. I'm always here to help pay it forward. My DMs are almost always open.

All the Best,

Philip Laureano

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