NGL that block pattern thing is something I never really noticed but it makes a lot of sense. The messy way to do it in C++ would be with a lambda that you then just evaluate, but being about to avoid that and instead using standard scoping syntax for the same thing neat. I’m pretty sure I’ve even done this before without even thinking about it.
And if you put all of the definitions you need right at the top it’s super easy to split out into a function if/when you need it elsewhere
I will say that using a super efficient cloud model (deepseek for me, v4 flash is very cheap) is probably more efficient than using a local model in most cases, especially if you need strong capabilities. The question is whether your own grid or the provider’s grid is more environmentally friendly (hint: china’s energy mix is about 50% fossil fuels while the US’s mix is around 75% fossil fuels overall)
Training is of course expensive still, but Chinese labs have all but caught up to US labs despite much lower compute resources being available to them.