Local-Models

Benchmarking small open-weight models on a $1,000 laptop to see which ones know when to use tools — and when not to.

LLMs are productivity multipliers for software engineers. Over the last few years, the quality of their output has reached a professional level. They cannot one-shot a complete SaaS product (yet), but it’s more than just fancy autocomplete. What used to take an hour now takes minutes. Once you get used to building with AI-powered tools, the alternative feels awkward. I remember developing software in the early 2000s. The internet existed, but treasure troves like Stack Overflow didn’t. Building something with a new framework meant buying and reading the physical book. Before hoodies were in, the sign of the real developer was a stack of O’Reilly books on your desk. ...