--- date: "2025-08-30T00:00:00Z" categories: - linkedin - llms description: "Using the best models, giving them rich context, working through code, tracking what still fails, and leaning into audio are the current highest-leverage habits." keywords: ["LLM usage", "best practices", "context", "audio interfaces", "AI coding", "prompting"] --- Here's my current answer when asked, "How do I use LLMs better?" 1. **Use the best models**. O3 (via $20 ChatGPT), Gemini 2.5 Pro (free on Gemini app), or Claude 4 Opus (via $20 Claude). The older models are the default and far worse. 2. **Use audio**. **Speak** & **listen**, don't just type & read. It's harder to skip and easier to stay in the present when listening. It's also easier to ramble than to type. 3. **Write down what fails**. Maintain that "impossibility list". There is a jagged edge to AI. Retry every month, you can see how that edge shifts. 4. **Wait for better models**. Many problems can be solved just by waiting a few months for a new model. You don't need to find or build your own app. 5. **Give LLMs lots of context**. It's a huge enabler. Search, copy-pasteable files, past chats, connectors, APIs/tools, ... 6. **Have LLMs write code**. LLMs are bad at math. They're good at code. Code hallucinates less. So you get creativity _and_ reliability. 7. **Learn AI coding**. 1. Build a game with ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini. 2. Create a tool useful to you. 3. Publish it on GitHub. 8. **APIs are cheaper than self hosting**. Don't bother running your own models. 9. **Datasets matter**. Building custom models does not. You can always fine-tune a newer model if you have the datasets. Comic via https://tools.s-anand.net/picbook/ [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sanand0_how-to-use-llms-better-activity-7358724834857570304-Ge51)