Leslie Li — The Dispatches & Research Log https://leslieli.dev/ Personal research log of Leslie Li. Working on local LLMs, NVFP4 quantization, agentic hardware robotics, and speculative physics. en-us Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:00 +0800 The Files Stay on Your Computer https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-files-stay-on-your-computer/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-files-stay-on-your-computer/ Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:00 +0800 Full Access, On Site https://leslieli.dev/notes/full-access-on-site/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/full-access-on-site/ Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:37 +0800 Griffin Listens While It Talks https://leslieli.dev/notes/griffin-listens-while-it-talks/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/griffin-listens-while-it-talks/ Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:55 +0800 The Pause Missed the Name https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-pause-missed-the-name/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-pause-missed-the-name/ Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:53 +0800 They Edit the History First https://leslieli.dev/notes/they-edit-the-history-first/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/they-edit-the-history-first/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 10:16 +0800 AMD Buys the World Model Shop https://leslieli.dev/notes/amd-buys-the-world-model-shop/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/amd-buys-the-world-model-shop/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:00 +0800 A Studio in a Folder https://leslieli.dev/notes/a-studio-in-a-folder/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/a-studio-in-a-folder/ Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:00 +0800 Who Spoke When https://leslieli.dev/notes/who-spoke-when/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/who-spoke-when/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 18:00 +0800 Claude Found an Enzyme by Eye-Balling DNA https://leslieli.dev/notes/claude-found-an-enzyme-by-eye-balling-dna/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/claude-found-an-enzyme-by-eye-balling-dna/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:00 +0800 The Local LLM macOS Ships https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-local-llm-macos-ships/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-local-llm-macos-ships/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0800 Agents Bill Like a Different Workload https://leslieli.dev/notes/agents-bill-like-a-different-workload/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/agents-bill-like-a-different-workload/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800 One Number in a Config File https://leslieli.dev/notes/one-number-in-a-config-file/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/one-number-in-a-config-file/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 14:20:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Models Training Six Months to Robotics https://leslieli.dev/notes/robotics-in-six-months/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/robotics-in-six-months/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:01:03 +0800 Leslie Li Hardware Robotics Career The Grind Was the Training https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-grind-was-the-training/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-grind-was-the-training/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 09:40:51 +0800 Leslie Li AI Law Work Jev Returns a Decision https://leslieli.dev/notes/jev-returns-a-decision/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/jev-returns-a-decision/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 14:45:35 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Software Score the Search on the Tree You Already Paid For https://leslieli.dev/notes/score-the-search-on-the-tree/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/score-the-search-on-the-tree/ Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:41:53 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Workflows Build Prod, Not God https://leslieli.dev/notes/build-prod-not-god/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/build-prod-not-god/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 13:40:09 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Software What Is Left to Teach https://leslieli.dev/notes/what-is-left-to-teach/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/what-is-left-to-teach/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:40:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Education Universities Any Database Will Do https://leslieli.dev/notes/any-database-will-do/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/any-database-will-do/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:58:31 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents CRM Zhu et al. on RSIAgent https://leslieli.dev/notes/zhu-et-al-on-rsiagent/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/zhu-et-al-on-rsiagent/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 21:09:10 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Memory Kevin Bass on Anthropic and METR https://leslieli.dev/notes/kevin-bass-on-anthropic-and-metr/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/kevin-bass-on-anthropic-and-metr/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:50:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Policy Anthropic Restriction Has to Carry the Proof https://leslieli.dev/notes/restriction-has-to-carry-the-proof/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/restriction-has-to-carry-the-proof/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 11:10:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Policy Open source MIT on AI and Education https://leslieli.dev/notes/mit-on-ai-and-education/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/mit-on-ai-and-education/ Mon, 14 Sep 2026 21:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Education MIT More True Statements Without Understanding https://leslieli.dev/notes/more-true-statements-without-understanding/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/more-true-statements-without-understanding/ Mon, 14 Sep 2026 17:20:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Science Theory OpenAI on Skills and Prompts for Astra https://leslieli.dev/notes/openai-on-skills-and-prompts-for-astra/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/openai-on-skills-and-prompts-for-astra/ Mon, 14 Sep 2026 12:05:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Codex OpenAI Agents and the RubyGems Attack https://leslieli.dev/notes/openai-agents-and-the-rubygems-attack/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/openai-agents-and-the-rubygems-attack/ Mon, 14 Sep 2026 10:10:00 +0800 Leslie Li Security AI Agents Shopify Traded Shared Source for Shared Specs https://leslieli.dev/notes/shopify-traded-shared-source-for-shared-specs/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/shopify-traded-shared-source-for-shared-specs/ Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:40:00 +0800 Leslie Li Engineering AI Mobile The Einstein Test Has No Grader https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-einstein-test-has-no-grader/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-einstein-test-has-no-grader/ Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:20:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Physics Science Stonkfly https://leslieli.dev/notes/stonkfly/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/stonkfly/ Fri, 11 Sep 2026 13:50:00 +0800 Leslie Li Connectome Markets Simulation Anthropic on Seven Labs https://leslieli.dev/notes/anthropic-seven-labs/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/anthropic-seven-labs/ Fri, 11 Sep 2026 13:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li Security AI Distillation Your Agent Is Mine https://leslieli.dev/notes/your-agent-is-mine/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/your-agent-is-mine/ Fri, 11 Sep 2026 12:40:00 +0800 Leslie Li Security Agents Supply chain Pamir's Lapis One https://leslieli.dev/notes/lapis-one-agent-computer/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/lapis-one-agent-computer/ Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:40:00 +0800 Leslie Li Hardware Agents Linux A Calculator, Not 2030 https://leslieli.dev/notes/a-calculator-not-a-picture/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/a-calculator-not-a-picture/ Thu, 10 Sep 2026 09:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Economics Society Johansen on the LG Investigation https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-smart-part-is-the-defect/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-smart-part-is-the-defect/ Wed, 09 Sep 2026 19:20:00 +0800 Leslie Li Hardware Privacy Security Coxon Resigns from Anthropic https://leslieli.dev/notes/they-know-and-they-race/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/they-know-and-they-race/ Wed, 09 Sep 2026 15:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Alignment Society The Equations Can Break https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-equations-can-break/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-equations-can-break/ Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Mathematics Science We Do Not Know the Threshold https://leslieli.dev/notes/we-do-not-know-the-threshold/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/we-do-not-know-the-threshold/ Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:20:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Cognition Society Still Mortals https://leslieli.dev/notes/still-mortals/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/still-mortals/ Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Alignment Society The Peanut Butter Trap in Enterprise AI https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-peanut-butter-trap/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-peanut-butter-trap/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 14:05:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI FinOps Enterprise The Fallback Problem: When Machines Take the Mind https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-fallback-problem/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/the-fallback-problem/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 18:54:02 +0800 Leslie Li AI Economics Labor The Pupil Knows You're Tired Before You Do https://leslieli.dev/notes/sparkling-water-cognitive-fatigue/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/sparkling-water-cognitive-fatigue/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li Cognitive Fatigue Pupillometry Esports Perplexity's Lily: What 1.35x Decode Actually Buys https://leslieli.dev/notes/perplexity-lily-engine/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/perplexity-lily-engine/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li Local Inference Apple Silicon LLM Engineering One Flash, 2.6 Sigma: The LZ Dark Matter Hint https://leslieli.dev/notes/lz-dark-matter-hint/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/lz-dark-matter-hint/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 09:45:00 +0800 Leslie Li Particle Physics Dark Matter LUX-ZEPLIN The Night the Telegraphs Ran on Sunlight https://leslieli.dev/notes/carrington-event/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/carrington-event/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 09:04:27 +0800 Leslie Li Space Weather Solar Physics History of Science The Illusion of Progress: AI, Speed, and Understanding https://leslieli.dev/notes/ai-illusion-of-progress/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/ai-illusion-of-progress/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Mathematics Terence Tao The Duck Does Not Ship Here https://leslieli.dev/notes/pollen-microduck-diy/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/pollen-microduck-diy/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:30:03 +0800 Leslie Li Robotics Pollen Robotics DIY Telling More Than They Can Know https://leslieli.dev/notes/telling-more-than-they-can-know/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/telling-more-than-they-can-know/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 22:13:00 +0800 Leslie Li Mechanistic Interpretability LLM Self-Explanation Confabulation A Reflexion Author Scored 100% AI https://leslieli.dev/notes/a-reflexion-author-scored-100-percent-ai/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/a-reflexion-author-scored-100-percent-ai/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 19:32:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Agent Memory AI Detection Agents Built Technologies That Outlived Them https://leslieli.dev/notes/swarmworld-stigmergic-agents/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/swarmworld-stigmergic-agents/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 15:16:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Research Multi-Agent Systems Stigmergy Software Engineering Still Matters. The Reason Changed. https://leslieli.dev/notes/software-engineering-still-matters/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/software-engineering-still-matters/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 14:12:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Engineering Andrew Ng Software Engineering I Hope It's the Next Pen-F https://leslieli.dev/notes/om-system-pen-f-teaser/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/om-system-pen-f-teaser/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:08:00 +0800 Leslie Li Photography Cameras OM System Before pstack, Lauren Tan Wrote About Fear https://leslieli.dev/notes/before-pstack-lauren-tan-fear/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/before-pstack-lauren-tan-fear/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 13:21:19 +0800 Leslie Li Learning Engineering AI Agents Go Deep First: Notes on Lauren Tan's pstack https://leslieli.dev/notes/go-deep-first-pstack/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/go-deep-first-pstack/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 11:20:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Cursor Verification Google's ATLAS: Mapping AI Use at the Scale of an Economy https://leslieli.dev/notes/google-atlas-gemini-economy/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/google-atlas-gemini-economy/ Wed, 26 Aug 2026 14:20:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Economics Gemini Solow Paradox The Family LLM Box: Mac mini vs. Mac Studio Over Two Years https://leslieli.dev/notes/family-local-llm-tco/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/family-local-llm-tco/ Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li Cost of Ownership Local LLM Mac mini Portable Computer: Perplexity Puts the Whole Agent Runtime on Your Desk https://leslieli.dev/notes/portable-computer-dgx-spark/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/portable-computer-dgx-spark/ Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li Local-First AI Agent Harness NVIDIA DGX Spark If Every Agent Can Do the Work, Why Do You Still Need a System? https://leslieli.dev/notes/token-freedom-personal-ai-firm/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/token-freedom-personal-ai-firm/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 16:40:00 +0800 Leslie Li Coase Agent Economics Personal AI System You Don’t Have to Say “Jobs” to Trigger Job Fear https://leslieli.dev/notes/ai-control-narratives-replacement-anxiety/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/ai-control-narratives-replacement-anxiety/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:50:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Anxiety Work Agency The Tiny Red Dot Lives in a Watershed We Haven’t Finished Mapping https://leslieli.dev/notes/laniakea-shapley-basin/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/laniakea-shapley-basin/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 23:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li Cosmology Laniakea Cosmic Web Skills That Scan Clean Still Fail at Runtime: NVIDIA’s Skill Lift https://leslieli.dev/notes/nvidia-aces-skill-lift/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/nvidia-aces-skill-lift/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 22:40:00 +0800 Leslie Li Agent Skills Evaluation NVIDIA A Reading Path for RL on LLMs https://leslieli.dev/notes/rl-for-llms-reading-list/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/rl-for-llms-reading-list/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li Reinforcement Learning RLHF GRPO The AI Miracle Was a Straight Line https://leslieli.dev/notes/ai-scaling-laws-the-straight-line/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/ai-scaling-laws-the-straight-line/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 10:15:00 +0800 Leslie Li Scaling Laws Chinchilla AI Strategy Outrunning Light: Cherenkov Radiation as an Electromagnetic Shock Front https://leslieli.dev/notes/cherenkov-radiation-outrun-light/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/cherenkov-radiation-outrun-light/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 09:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li Cherenkov Radiation Electromagnetism Wave Physics Prompt as Code: Inside the GPT-Image-2 Industrial Engine & 500+ Reverse-Engineered Visual Protocols https://leslieli.dev/notes/awesome-gpt-image-2-prompt-as-code/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/awesome-gpt-image-2-prompt-as-code/ Sat, 22 Aug 2026 10:20:00 +0800 Leslie Li Prompt as Code GPT-Image-2 Generative UI Agent Skills Graph Engineering: From 1 Prompt to 100 Agents Running in One System https://leslieli.dev/notes/graph-engineering-1-prompt-to-100-agents/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/graph-engineering-1-prompt-to-100-agents/ Sat, 22 Aug 2026 08:45:00 +0800 Leslie Li Graph Engineering Multi-Agent Systems Agent Harness Andrew Ng's AI Engineering Skills Map: Deconstructing the 6 Pillars of Building & Deploying AI Applications https://leslieli.dev/notes/andrew-ng-ai-engineering-skills-map/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/andrew-ng-ai-engineering-skills-map/ Sat, 22 Aug 2026 08:25:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Engineering Agent Harness System Architecture Anthropic's Internal /eli5 Skill: Visualizing Complex Systems via Interactive HTML Artifacts https://leslieli.dev/notes/anthropic-eli5-skill-html-artifacts/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/anthropic-eli5-skill-html-artifacts/ Sat, 22 Aug 2026 08:15:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Prompt Engineering Claude Code FreeToken: Serving 284B–753B Frontier MoE Models on Consumer Gaming PCs at Interactive Speeds https://leslieli.dev/notes/freetoken-edge-native-moe-serving-consumer-gpus/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/freetoken-edge-native-moe-serving-consumer-gpus/ Sat, 22 Aug 2026 07:45:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Systems Local Models Edge Inference Why Some Early-Career Professionals Work Well with AI—and Others Don’t https://leslieli.dev/notes/hbr-human-ai-collaboration-amplifiers-delegators-apprentices/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/hbr-human-ai-collaboration-amplifiers-delegators-apprentices/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 22:15:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Workforce Human-AI Collaboration HBR Research Agency Agents: 140+ Open-Source Expert Personas https://leslieli.dev/notes/github-treasure-agency-agents-open-source-persona-library/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/github-treasure-agency-agents-open-source-persona-library/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Open Source Codex as a Platform: How OpenAI's Open Agent Harness Unlocks Embedded AI Beyond Generic Chatboxes https://leslieli.dev/notes/codex-as-a-platform-open-agent-harness/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/codex-as-a-platform-open-agent-harness/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents System Design Claude Academy: A Limited Note on the Launch https://leslieli.dev/notes/claude-academy-interactive-learning/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/claude-academy-interactive-learning/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Agents Education Transparent Backgrounds in the GPT-Image-2 API https://leslieli.dev/notes/transparent-background-gpt-image-2/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/transparent-background-gpt-image-2/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 18:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li Computer Vision Image Generation IP as Logo: Turning Agent System Skills into Visual Brand Tokens https://leslieli.dev/notes/ip-as-logo-agent-skill/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/ip-as-logo-agent-skill/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li Brand Design AI Systems What Is an Agent Harness? One Practical Breakdown https://leslieli.dev/notes/what-is-an-agent-harness/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/what-is-an-agent-harness/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Architecture Agents Hexapod Robot Edge Brain: Distilling Reasoning Models to Raspberry Pi 5 https://leslieli.dev/notes/hexapod-robot-edge-brain-architecture/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/hexapod-robot-edge-brain-architecture/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li Robotics Edge Compute Moderna's Personalized mRNA Cancer Vaccine: Mechanism and Clinical Evidence https://leslieli.dev/notes/moderna-mrna-cancer-vaccine/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/moderna-mrna-cancer-vaccine/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li Biotech Computational Biology A Reported Ex-Vivo Neural Tissue and Robotic Interface https://leslieli.dev/notes/ex-vivo-neural-plasticity/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/ex-vivo-neural-plasticity/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 19:30:00 +0800 Leslie Li Neuroscience Bio-computing The River of Spacetime: Demystifying Black Holes & the Event Horizon https://leslieli.dev/notes/black-hole-event-horizon/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/black-hole-event-horizon/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li Astrophysics Simulation A Local Model Candidate for a Single RTX 5090 https://leslieli.dev/notes/best-local-model-rtx-5090/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/best-local-model-rtx-5090/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li AI Models Quantization Opening the Log https://leslieli.dev/notes/opening-the-log/ https://leslieli.dev/notes/opening-the-log/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0800 Leslie Li Dev Log Philosophy