I would rate those patents as moderately helpful. They go into a lot of detail, but not exactly the details I wanted :-) For the broader patent question, there

I would rate those patents as moderately helpful. They go into a lot of detail, but not exactly the details I wanted :-) For the broader patent question, there is a huge range in patent usefulness. Some patents explain everything clearly and at the end I'm like "Oh, now I understand the problem in detail and how they solved it." Most patents, however, are lawyer-edited mush where I learn nothing from them and it's not clear what they are even describing. Some Texas Instruments patents are super-detailed, to the point that I could built a calculator simulator from the schematics and source code. The Intel 8086 patents were also extremely helpful (although they covered only half of what I wanted to know). My opinion on patents is that the examination process should be much different and force patents to clearly describe the specific problem and solution, giving useful background information, more like a conference paper. If a patent doesn't contribute anything useful to the reader, it should be rejected. As for a Patreon, I don't have one. But CuriousMarc (who I worked on the AGC and other projects with) has one at https://www.patreon.com/curiousmarc https://www.patreon.com/curiousmarc