July 2025

Switching to a Linux machine has advantages. My thinking’s moving from apps to pipes. I wanted a spaced repetition app to remind me quotes from my notes. I began by writing a prompt for Claude Code: Write a program that I can run like uv run recall.py --files 10 --lines 200 --model gpt-4.1-mini [PATHS...] that suggests points from my notes to recall. It should --files 10: Pick the 10 latest files from the PATHs (defaulting to ~/Dropbox/notes) --lines 200: Take the top 200 lines (which usually have the latest information) --model gpt-4.1-mini: Pass it to this model and ask it to summarize points to recall ...

LLMs are smarter than us in many areas. How do we manage them? This is not a new problem. VC partners evaluate deep-tech startups. Science editors review Nobel laureates. Managers manage specialist teams. Judges evaluate expert testimony. Coaches train Olympic athletes. … and they manage and evaluate “smarter” outputs in many ways: Verify. Check against an “answer sheet”. Checklist. Evaluate against pre-defined criteria. Sampling. Randomly review a subset. Gating. Accept low-risk work. Evaluate critical ones. Benchmark. Compare against others. Red-team. Probe to expose hidden flaws. Double-blind review. Mask identity to curb bias. Reproduce. Re-running gives the same output? Consensus. Aggregate multiple responses. Wisdom of crowds. Outcome. Did it work in the real world? For example: ...

In 2025, I’m playing Goals Bingo. I want to complete one row or column of these goals. Here’s my status from Jan – Jun 2025. 🟢 indicates I’m on track and likely to complete.🟡 indicates I’m behind but I may be able to hit it.🔴 indicates I’m behind and it’s looking hard. DomainRepeatStretchNewPeople🟢 Better husband. Going OK🟡 Meet all first cousins. 8/14🟢 Interview 10 experts. 11/10🟡 Live with a stranger. Tried homestay - doesn't countEducation🔴 50 books. 6/50🟡 Teach 5,000 students. ~1,500🟡 Run a course only with AI. Ran a workshop with AITechnology🟢 20 data stories. 10/20🔴 LLM Foundry: 5K MaU. 2.2K MaU.🟡 Build a robot. No progress.🟢 Co-present with an AI. DoneHealth🟢 300 days of yoga. 183/183 days🟡 80 heart points/day. Far from it🔴 Bike 1,000 km 300 hrs. Far from it🟢 Vipassana. 2 Jul 2025Wealth🔴 Buy low. No progress.🔴 Beat inflation 5%. Not started.🟡 Donate $10K. Ideating.🔴 Fund a startup. Not started. At the moment, there's no row or column that looks like a definite win. ...