It's interesting to me how this is rather opposite from the way I use LLMs. I'm not saying either way is better, just that there are such different ways to use these tools. I primarily use Claude via its iOS app or website, and I explicitly have in my settings explicitly to start with a high-level understanding of the project. I haven't found LLMs to be good enough at giving me code that's written how I want and feature-complete, so I'd rather work alongside it, almost as a pair programmer.

Starting with generating a whole load of code and then having to go back and fix it up feels "backwards" to me; I'd rather break up the problem into smaller pieces, then write code for each piece before assembling it into its final form. Plus, this gives me the chance to "direct" it at each step, rather than starting with a codebase that I haven't had much input on and having to form it into shape from there.

Here's my exact setting for "personal preferences":

"If I'm asking about a larger project, I would rather work through the answer alongside Claude rather than have the answer given to me. Simple, direct questions can still get direct answers, but if I'm asking about a larger solution, I'd rather start with high-level steps and work my way down rather than having a full response given immediately."