{"version":"https:\/\/jsonfeed.org\/version\/1","title":"mathspp.com feed","home_page_url":"https:\/\/mathspp.com\/blog\/tags\/llm","feed_url":"https:\/\/mathspp.com\/blog\/tags\/llm.json","description":"Stay up-to-date with the articles on mathematics and programming that get published to mathspp.com.","author":{"name":"Rodrigo Gir\u00e3o Serr\u00e3o"},"items":[{"title":"Ask the LLM to write code for it","date_published":"2026-03-24T14:16:00+01:00","id":"https:\/\/mathspp.com\/blog\/ask-the-llm-to-write-code-for-it","url":"https:\/\/mathspp.com\/blog\/ask-the-llm-to-write-code-for-it","content_html":"

This article covers a useful LLM pattern where you ask the LLM to write code to solve a problem instead of asking it to solve the problem directly.<\/p>\n\n

The problem of merging two transcripts<\/a><\/h2>\n

I had two files that contained two halves of the transcript of an audio recording and I wanted to use an LLM to merge the two halves.\nThere were three reasons that stopped me from simply copying part 2 and pasting it after part 1:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. the two transcripts overlapped (the end of part 1 was after the start of part 2);<\/li>\n
  2. the timestamps for part 2 started from 0, so they were missing an offset; and<\/li>\n
  3. speaker identification was not consistent.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I uploaded the two halves into ChatGPT and asked it to merge the two transcripts, fix the timestamps and the speaker identification, but to not change the text.<\/p>\n

    The result I got back was a ridiculous attempt at providing the full transcript, with two sections that supposedly represented parts of either transcript I could just copy and paste confidently, and a couple of other ridiculous blunders.<\/p>\n

    Instead of fighting ChatGPT, I decided to use a very useful pattern I learned about last year.<\/p>\n

    Ask the LLM to write code for it<\/a><\/h2>\n

    Instead of asking ChatGPT to merge the transcripts, I could ask it to analyse them, find the solutions to the three problems listed above, and then write code that would merge the transcripts.<\/p>\n

    Since I was confident that ChatGPT could<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. identify the overlap between the two files;<\/li>\n
    2. use the overlap information to compute the timestamp offset required for part 2; and<\/li>\n
    3. figure out you had to swap the two speakers in part 2,<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      I knew ChatGPT would be able to write a Python script that could read from both files and apply a couple of string operations to the second part.<\/p>\n

      This yielded much better results in two ways.\nChatGPT was able to find the solutions for the three problems above and write a script that fixed them automatically.\nThat was the goal.<\/p>\n

      On top of that, since ChatGPT had a very clear implicit goal \u2014 get the final merged transcript \u2014 and since running Python code is something that ChatGPT can do, ChatGPT even ran the script for me and produced two artifacts at the end:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. the full Python script I could run against the two halves if I wanted; and<\/li>\n
      2. the final, fixed transcript.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        This is an example application of a really useful LLM pattern:<\/p>\n

        \n

        Don't ask the LLM to solve a problem. Instead, ask it to write code that solves the problem.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

        As another visual example, it's much easier to ask an LLM to write a Python script that draws a path that solves a maze (that's just a couple hundred of lines of code) than it is to upload an image and ask the LLM to draw a valid path<\/em> on the picture of a maze.\nTry it yourself!<\/p>","summary":"This article covers a useful LLM pattern where you ask the LLM to write code to solve a problem instead of asking it to solve the problem directly.","date_modified":"2026-03-24T15:29:56+01:00","tags":["python","programming","llm","slice of life"],"image":"\/user\/pages\/02.blog\/ask-the-llm-to-write-code-for-it\/thumbnail.webp"},{"title":"Cyclic trapezoid animation","date_published":"2026-03-14T15:51:00+01:00","id":"https:\/\/mathspp.com\/blog\/cyclic-trapezoid-animation","url":"https:\/\/mathspp.com\/blog\/cyclic-trapezoid-animation","content_html":"

        See an animation of a trapezoid innscribed in a circle, built with some maths and the help of an LLM.<\/p>\n\n

        The animation<\/a><\/h2>\n

        My brother asked for my help to build an animation of a trapezoid inscribed in a circle that kept changing his shape.\nWith a bit of maths<\/a> and the help of ChatGPT for the UI, I created the animation you can see below.\nUnder the animation you can find a control panel that allows you to tweak some animation parameters, and under that you can find a brief explanation of how the animation works.<\/p>\n