Merge Conflict
517: Plan First, Think Less: Save Tokens, Improve Code
01 June 2026 34:49 soundbite.fm
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About this episode
Episode 517 starts with a light chat about AI avatars and new text‑to‑speech deepfakes before diving into LLM “thinking” modes—what baked‑in planning actually does, why it multiplies token costs, and when it helps or hurts. James and Frank give concrete dev advice: try low‑thinking settings, use big models for creative planning then smaller ones to execute, leverage harnesses/system prompts, and beware quantized local models often do better without thinking.
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- Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by Adventureface
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Machine transcription available on http://mergeconflict.fm
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