7 minute read

Check out my Halloween Candy Calculator!

You might be wondering why I built a Halloween Candy Calculator. That’s a fair question. I mean, who in their right mind wakes up and thinks, “You know what the world needs? A tool to calculate how long Halloween candy will last, factoring in Dad’s chocolate raids and Mom’s mysterious candy disposal habits.”

Yet here we are. And surprisingly, this whimsical project perfectly illustrates several powerful aspects of developing with Large Language Models (LLMs).

The Economics of Silly Ideas

Remember the last time you had a “wouldn’t it be cool if…” moment? Traditionally, these ideas often die a quick death when confronted with the reality of development costs and time investments. Building even a simple interactive application typically involves:

  1. Planning and wireframing
  2. Setting up a development environment
  3. Writing code
  4. Testing and debugging
  5. Iterating on feedback

That’s a lot of effort for something that might end up being used exactly once, on November 1st.

But with LLMs, the economics fundamentally change. The time-to-value becomes so compressed that suddenly, these “silly” ideas become viable experiments. I built this Halloween Candy Calculator through a conversation with an LLM in minutes, not hours or days. The barrier to trying something has effectively disappeared.

The Power of “Yes, And…”

If I approached a developer friend with this idea, they’d probably (and rightfully) laugh. But LLMs never say no. They approach every request with a “Yes, and…” mentality borrowed from improvisational theater. This characteristic opens up fascinating possibilities:

  • Want to build a calculator that factors in “Dad’s Chocolate Raid Factor”? Sure!
  • Need it to account for Mom’s secret candy disposal operations? Why not!
  • Want to include a “Secret Treehouse Spot” hiding bonus? Here you go!

This willingness to engage with any idea, no matter how niche or seemingly impractical, enables a new kind of experimental development that wasn’t previously possible.

Creativity Through Collaboration

One of the most surprising aspects of working with LLMs is their capacity for creative partnership. My prompt included generic guidance like “make it funny but practical” and “be creative!” The result? We got gems like:

  • A “Dad’s Chocolate Raid Factor” with escalating descriptions from “Dad is behaving” to “Dad gone wild!”
  • Hiding spot bonuses with increasing effectiveness
  • Playful warnings about “parental investigation skills”

The LLM didn’t just implement features – it contributed to the creative direction in meaningful and entertaining ways.

AI Education Through Play

As a parent of elementary school children, I’m acutely aware that AI will fundamentally reshape their educational and professional futures. But how do you introduce young kids to AI in a way that’s engaging and relatable?

This calculator serves as a perfect entry point. It’s:

  • Interactive and fun
  • Relatable to their experiences
  • Built using AI in a transparent way
  • Educational (featuring basic math and problem-solving)

It opens the door to discussions about how AI can help create tools and solve problems, all through the lens of something they care about – their Halloween candy stash!

The Gateway to Practical Applications

While a Halloween Candy Calculator might not change the world, building it teaches valuable lessons about LLM development that transfer directly to more serious applications:

  1. Rapid prototyping capabilities
  2. Interactive feature iteration
  3. Creative problem-solving
  4. User interface design
  5. State management and calculations

The skills and patterns used here apply equally well to building business tools, educational resources, or any other interactive applications.

Getting Started

The only way to truly understand the potential of LLM development is to dive in and start building. Whether it’s a whimsical candy calculator or a serious business application, the barrier to entry has never been lower.

Want to try the Halloween Candy Calculator yourself? Check it out here and see how long your Halloween haul might last – assuming Dad doesn’t go into “raid mode” and Mom’s candy disposal rate stays reasonable!

Remember: The next time you have an idea that seems too niche, too silly, or too impractical to build – try it anyway. In the age of LLMs, the cost of experimentation is approaching zero, and you might be surprised by what you create.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check on my kids’ candy hiding spots. For research purposes, of course. 🍫

A Sweet Confession

I have a confession to make: this entire blog post was written using an LLM. In fact, both the Halloween Candy Calculator and this post about building it were created through LLM prompting. Meta, right?

I think there’s something beautifully recursive about using an LLM to write about using LLMs. It demonstrates the very points I’ve been making about rapid prototyping and creative collaboration. The entire project – from initial idea to working calculator to published blog post – was accomplished through a series of prompts and iterations.

For complete transparency (and because I believe in learning in public), here are the exact prompts I used to create both the calculator and this post:

Appendix: The Prompts Behind the Magic

Calculator Creation Prompt

I want you to help me build an interactive application that I can use. Here are some details:
* It should help me and my kids calculate when all of their Halloween candy will be gone
* It should have some toggles and drop-downs to allow my kids to configure different aspects that could impact when their candy will be gone
* Dad likes to take candy. He prefers the chocolate!
* Mom likes to hide the candy, and sometimes it gets thrown away!
* We like to eat desserts, but not too much!
* It should be funny but practical. You should be creative!
* You can decide what aspects are important to include in the calculation.
* Use some fun Emojis!

Follow-up Calculator Prompt

* Can you turn Mom's Secret Disposal Mode into a slider, similar to Dad's Chocolate Raid Factor?
* Can you add the ability for the kids to choose a hiding spot, which will allow them to increase the days the candy is left? Sometimes they might be able to sneak some away!

Blog Post Creation Prompt

Okay this is great! The other thing I want to do is to create a short blog post for my website mattstockton.com

Here are some details on the post:
* I want to it to be titled 'LLMs : Halloween Candy Edition
* I want it to be somewhat funny and somewhat serious
* I want to publish a link to this interactive calculator that I built
* I want to highlight a few aspects of building with LLMs that I find to be highly valuable, and relevant to this toy project:
   * The cost to prototype an application with LLMs is drastically smaller than classical tools. Thus, there is a broader range of problems you can *try* to solve with LLMs, given that the time to value is so fast
   * Thus, there's an opportunity to build more niche and even 'throw-away' software - like a Halloween Candy Calculator
   * LLMs will never say no. If I asked a person to build me this calculator, they would laugh -- rightfully so. But there's plenty of things that you can build now beside this, which on first observation, would seem completely or impractical. LLMs will always try a thing.
   * LLMs are actually creative, and you can treat them as a creativity partner, if you arrive with the right mindset. Notice in my prompt that I asked it to be funny and practical, be creative! -- This is pretty generic guidance, but the results are actually pretty great (check out the 'Dad's Chocolate Raid Factor' slider -- 'Dad gone wild!') - I just came with a tone and expectation that it'd do some funny stuff, and only needed basic prompting to get it to do so
   * LLMs are a great learning tool, particularly for young kiddos. My kids are in elementary school. There is no doubt in my mind that AI will drastically impact their lives, specifically how they learn. What better way to introduce them to this pending change, then by showing them how it works in a creative, engaging way! Build them a calculator and tell them how it works!
   * The only way to learn is to get started. And once you get started, you'll likely find ways that it can practically impact the things you actually need to do (assuming you don't want to build a candy calculator)

Adding The Confession

This is great. One thing I want to add. At the end, say something that indicates I have a confession to make, and that the confession is that I wrote this post entirely with LLMs. I want to make that confession, and then include all of the prompts I used in both the application creation and the creation of this post at the end of the post as an appendix

The results speak for themselves: a functional application and a detailed blog post, created through simple, clear communication with an LLM. No traditional coding environment required for the initial prototype, no writing outlines, no staring at a blank page wondering how to start.

This isn’t just a post about using LLMs – it’s a demonstration of their capabilities in action. And if an LLM can help create a Halloween Candy Calculator and write about the process, imagine what it could help you build and document.

Now, seriously, I really do need to go check those candy hiding spots… 🕵️‍♂️

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