Hacker News Reader

Comment by simonw | Hacker News Reader

That approach should work well for projects where you are directly working on the code in tandem with Claude, but a lot of my own uses are much more research oriented. I like sending Claude Code off on a mission figure out how to do something.

Here's an example from this morning, getting CUDA working on a NVIDIA Spark: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/20/deepseek-ocr-claude-co...

I have a few more in https://github.com/simonw/research

View on HN

Very fair. Interesting how much feedback on models/tools is different right now depending on what you're doing.

so hey by the way, have you discovered Wispr Flow or something similar so you can talk to your computer like Scotty does?

Yeah I've tried it a bit it's not a habit for me yet.

I write code on my phone a lot using ChatGPT voice mode though!

I also use voice mode a lot, I find it's really useful for talking to while you're shaping an idea or an approach, then asking it to summarise the decisions you've made. Essentially rubber ducking.

Here's what I did to make voice (now WisprFlow, before Superwhisper) a habit:

  1. Install Karabiner-Elements, a free macOS keyboard remapper[0]
  2. Map F19 -> F5 (mic button) in Karabiner-Elements
  3. Choose F19 as the voice hotkey in your voice app

And now you can use the handy F5 mic button on your Apple keyboard. WisprFlow automatically has it set for:

  - press and hold to talk
  - double tap for indeterminate listening until you f5/esc

That workflow alone, of using the f5 key and switching between the two modes of speaking (holding or double-tap), has freed up a not insignificant part of my working memory. Turning abstract thoughts into text is higher cost than turning them into voice.

I predict individual offices[1] will be more popular as a choice for startups.

[0]: https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org

[1]: https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1281887

fwiw, I use the fn/international key at the bottom left of the keyboard. it's easier to locate and I (a privilege I enjoy because I rarely use diacritics) barely use it for anything else.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com