Day 0: Let’s Build Stable Diffusion from Scratch — Why? Because We Can!

By Yash | January 28, 2025

Alright, you’ve probably seen the mind-blowing results of Stable Diffusion — images popping up from just a few words. But what if I told you that you can code it from scratch? Yeah, that’s right. No magic here, just good old coding and math. It's a journey that’s going to challenge you, excite you, and maybe even make you question your life choices when debugging at 3 AM. But trust me, you’ve got this!

The Magic Formula: Coding Stable Diffusion isn’t as impossible as it sounds. You’ve got the power to do it, as long as you have the right tools and the right mindset. And guess what? You don’t need to be a math wizard to get started. Just a little bit of basic math and Python, and you’re all set. Don't worry, I’ll walk you through it.

Prerequisites: What You Need to Know (Don’t Panic, It’s Not That Bad)

  1. Mathematics:
    - Basic Math: Addition, subtraction, and all that jazz. You’ve got this.
    - Vectors: A little knowledge of vectors won’t hurt, and you'll find it actually pretty cool when it clicks.
    - Matrix Addition and Multiplication: You've probably studied it in your school years, but even if you haven't, it's still pretty easy. Lot's of good tutorials on YouTube.
  2. Coding:
    - Basic Python: If you can write a for loop, you’re halfway there. We’ll go over what you need, but knowing how to control the flow of your code will be key.

How We’ll Work:

This journey is going to be incredibly detailed—we’re talking about many, many steps along the way. But don't worry, I’ll guide you through each one.

For most things, I’ll make sure you understand the math and the intuition behind it. If not the math, you’ll at least know why we’re doing it. Trust me, it’ll all come together. You won’t be left wondering why we’re studying something or how it fits into the bigger picture. And by the end of this, you’ll have the full picture.

We’ll break things down into blocks. First, we’ll go over the basic concepts and everything you need. After that, we’ll dive into the math, then we’ll start writing code. Each step will build on the last.

Once we’ve learned all the individual components, we’ll start connecting everything together, step by step. It might not always make sense right away, but I promise, it will be worth it. You don’t have to know everything upfront—just trust the process.

I won’t make you study anything extra, and everything I have you learn will be useful in multiple places. It's kind of like learning a new language—sometimes, you just have to accept the ground truths, even if you don’t fully get it at first. But don’t worry, you’ll get there.


What I Expect From You:

I expect you to stay focused and give it your all. When we’re coding, code. And when we’re learning, grab a pen and paper and write things down. According to a study, writing things by hand activates a lot more brain networks than typing.

So, get ready to work and let’s make this happen. You’ve got this, and I’m here to help you every step of the way!