Divine Shield 0/2s
That day everyone forgot about The Beatles
Images
Music
Movies
Code
You are tiring yourself, Joseph.
My Thoughts on The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
My mouth felt dry. There sat the man I revered, my patron, my friend, whom I had loved and trusted ever since I could think, who had always responded to whatever I might say — there he sat and listened to me talk, or perhaps did not listen to me, and had barricaded himself completely behind his radiance and smile, behind his golden mask, unreachable, belonging to a different world with different laws; and everything I tried to bring by speech from our world to his ran off him like rain from a stone. At last — I had already given up hope — he broke through the magic wall; at last he helped me; at last he said a few words. Those were the only words I heard him speak today. " 'You are tiring yourself, Joseph,' he said softly, his voice full of that touching friendliness and solicitude you know so well. That was all. 'You are tiring yourself, Joseph.' As if he had long been watching me engaged in a too-strenuous task and wanted to admonish me to stop.
Outside, beyond the boundaries of the Province, was a way of life which ran counter to Castalia and its laws, which did not abide by the Castalian system and could not be tamed and sublimated by it. And of course he was aware of the presence of this world in his own heart also. He too had impulses, fantasies, and desires which ran counter to the laws that governed him, impulses which he had only gradually managed to subdue by hard effort.
But it happens that cultural creativity is something we cannot participate in quite so fully as some people think. A dialogue of Plato's or a choral movement by Heinrich Isaac — in fact all the things we call a product of the mind or a work of art or objectified spirit — are the outcomes of a struggle for purification and liberation. They are, to use your phrase, escapes from time into timelessness, and in most cases the best such works are those which no longer show any signs of the anguish and effort that preceded them.
"An old house is a fine thing, and if the two had stood side by side and your father were choosing between them, he probably would have kept the old one. Certainly, old houses are beautiful and distinguished, especially so handsome a one as this. But it is also a beautiful thing to build one's own house, and when an ambitious young man has the choice of comfortably and submissively settling into a finished nest, or building an entirely new one, one can well see that he may decide to build.
"If the high Authority appoints you to an office, know this: every step upward on the ladder of offices is not a step into freedom but into bondage. The higher the office, the tighter the bondage. The greater the power of the office, the stricter the service. The stronger the personality, the less self-will."
A Discussion on Building Successful Agent APIs
Beta Episode 1: How to kickstart successful API projects using the OpenAI API
In this episode, we take a look at how to kickstart successful API projects using the OpenAI API. We'll talk about understanding the problem at hand and the intricacies of the information pipeline. We then discuss the concept of Constraint Relaxation, simplifying complex problems temporarily to gain insight before reintroducing constraints. Then, we explore the importance of considering extreme or simple cases to spark creativity and problem-solving, stressing the importance of understanding the problem, available tools, and budget constraints.
Then we pivot to data generation or retrieval, and we delve into the dynamics of incomplete texts seeking completion by readers, highlighting the dialogue between writers and publishers. We also caution against the pitfalls of prolonged data-gathering and the reliance on big data without accounting for human needs and desires.
Architectural considerations are crucial, with an emphasis on balancing cleverness and simplicity in software design, and leveraging human-centered design principles for positive outcomes. Marketing strategies focusing on desired end results tied to core human drives are also discussed. We explore various tools for data generation or retrieval, including embeddings and completion APIs, and discuss architectural choices such as FastAPI, vector database vs. PostgreSQL, and frontend technologies like Next.js and Discord bots.
In the commentary cove section of the episode, we review commonplace bot and quoordinates within the discussed framework.
First Half
Full Episode
Exhaustion is Freneticism is Exhaustion
My Thoughts on The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han
scarcity threatens the body, abundance threatens the mind
All the talk of immunity, antibodies, grafting and rejection should not surprise anyone. In periods of scarcity, absorption and assimilation are the order of the day. In periods of abundance, rejection and expulsion are the chief concerns. Today, generalized communication and surplus information threaten to overwhelm all human defenses.
The violence of positivity does not deprive, it saturates; it does not exclude, it exhausts. That is why it proves inaccessible to unmediated perception.
the $99 group biking class at soulcycle might have been a giveaway
Today’s society is no longer Foucault’s disciplinary world of hospitals, madhouses, prisons, barracks, and factories. It has long been replaced by another regime, namely a society of fitness studios, office towers, banks, airports, shopping malls, and genetic laboratories. Twenty-first-century society is no longer a disciplinary society, but rather an achievement society [Leistungsgesellschaft]. Also, its inhabitants are no longer “obedience-subjects” but “achievement-subjects.” They are entrepreneurs of themselves.
Disciplinary society is still governed by no. Its negativity produces madmen and criminals. In contrast, achievement society creates depressives and losers.
The attitude toward time and environment known as “multitasking” does not represent civilizational progress. Human beings in the late-modern society of work and information are not the only ones capable of multitasking. Rather, such an aptitude amounts to regression. Multitasking is commonplace among wild animals. It is an attentive technique indispensable for survival in the wilderness.
We owe the cultural achievements of humanity—which include philosophy—to deep, contemplative attention. Culture presumes an environment in which deep attention is possible. Increasingly, such immersive reflection is being displaced by an entirely different form of attention: hyperattention.
castalia-core
The vita contemplativa is not a matter of passive affirmation and being open to whatever happens. Instead, it offers resistance to crowding, intrusive stimuli.
It is an illusion to believe that being more active means being freer.
Rage is the capacity to interrupt a given state and make a new state begin.
The computer calculates more quickly than the human brain and takes on inordinate quantities of data without difficulty because it is free of all Otherness. It is a machine of positivity [Positivmaschine]. Because of autistic self-referentiality, because negativity is absent, an idiot savant can perform what otherwise only a calculator can do.
Mourning differs from depression above all through its strong libidinal attachment to an object. In contrast, depression is objectless and therefore undirected. It is important to distinguish depression from melancholy. Melancholy is preceded by the experience of loss. Therefore it still stands in a relation—namely, negative relation—to the absent thing or party. In contrast, depression is cut off from all relation and attachment. It utterly lacks gravity [Schwerkraft].
In social networks, the function of “friends” is primarily to heighten narcissism by granting attention, as consumers, to the ego exhibited as a commodity.
What proves problematic is not individual competition per se, but rather its self-referentiality, which escalates into absolute competition. That is, the achievement-subject competes with itself; it succumbs to the destructive compulsion to outdo itself over and over, to jump over its own shadow. This self-constraint, which poses as freedom, has deadly results.
All of you who are in love with hectic work and whatever is fast, new, strange—you find it hard to bear yourselves, your diligence is escape and the will to forget yourself. If you believed more in life, you would hurl yourself less into the moment. But you do not have enough content in yourselves for waiting—not even for laziness!
The inner logic of achievement society dictates its evolution into a doping society. Life reduced to bare, vital functioning is life to be kept healthy unconditionally. Health is the new goddess.
I Don't Work on bramadams.dev For You
My Thoughts on The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
- a raw look into creativity – quite pragmatic actually, and says some things that don't satisfy the fragile sensibilities of the artist, but is tough love for making the best art
- i read this around the same time as another great book on finding the art in creation, The Timeless Way of Building
- what does it mean to sacrifice for your art?
- this book is 5 stars in my opinion because of who wrote it. rick rubin is a legend and walks the walk of creativity
- the artist moves from project to project as the living being moves from breath to breath
- this book says what many artists feel every day but fail to formalize into words
- art is for ourselves, a love letter to the universe and our place in it
The purpose of the work is to awaken something in you first, and then allow something to be awakened in others. And it’s fine if they’re not the same thing. We can only hope that the magnitude of the charge we experience reverberates as powerfully for others as it does for us.
If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker.
Imagine going to live on a mountaintop by yourself, forever. You build a home that no one will ever visit. Still, you invest the time and effort to shape the space in which you’ll spend your days. The wood, the plates, the pillows—all magnificent. Curated to your taste. This is the essence of great art. We make it for no other purpose than creating our version of the beautiful, bringing all of ourself to every project, whatever its parameters and constraints. Consider it an offering, a devotional act. We do the best, as we see the best—with our own taste. No one else’s. We create our art so we may inhabit it ourselves.
an interesting take on alpha zero being trained, or more acutely, coming up with creative go moves with huge sets of numbers. what is human, anyway?
The machine learned the game from scratch, with no coach. The AI followed the fixed rules, not the millennia of accepted cultural norms.
It didn’t take into account the 3000 year old traditions and conventions of the game.
It didn’t accept the narrative of how to properly play.
It wasn’t held back my limiting beliefs.
Ultimately, your desire to create must be greater than your fear of it.
If you make the choice of reading classic literature every day for a year, rather than reading the news, by the end of that time period you’ll have a more honed sensitivity for recognizing greatness from the books than from the media.
i drew a picture of this in my journal – it was crappy but still!
The word comes from the Latin—inspirare, meaning to breathe in or blow into. For the lungs to draw in air, they must first be emptied. For the mind to draw inspiration, it wants space to welcome the new. The universe seeks balance. Through this absence, you are inviting energy in.
so good they cant ignore you
With the objective of simply doing great work, a ripple effect occurs. A bar is set for everything you do, which may not only lift your work to new heights, but raise the vibration of your entire life. It may even inspire others to do their best work. Greatness begets greatness. It’s infectious.
Is It Worse to Be A Good Citizen?
My Thoughts on Alone in Berlin (Play) by Hans Falida
- i read the play because it was on kindle lol and the original currently isnt, but i really liked reading the stage play itself actually
- courage is sometimes not about being a good citizen in times of peace, or a bad citizen in times of dissent, but to be a good person
A Bench in the Paupers’ Graveyard, Friedrichshain Elsie enters, wanders, glances at the graves, sits down, takes out a bottle and swigs. Elsie (spoken) I like it here. It’s nice sometimes To sit upon the grass And park your arse On someone’s grave. No need to ask permission (Points down into the earth.) This lot don’t even have names. The paupers’ graveyard of Berlin Would not have let them in If big inscriptions and memorials Were what they’d hoped for. (Sings.) No stones, no carved poetic lines, No grand funereal designs Were ever offered here. No sure and certain hope Had ever come their way in life So why begin in death? They tossed ’em in In groups of five or six or ten or twenty Shovelled earth on top And shrugged and headed home. Not one of those inglorious dead Had lived a life of plenty Though plenty had of course been promised them. And now they lie unsung, unhonoured and unwept, For promises are promises And very rarely kept.
(Spoken.) I need a smoke.
Elsie (sings) At night the SS boss’s boss is Lying in the dark Trembling at the thought Of what the day could bring, Pondering his chances of survival. While far above him, Far, far above him, The boss of bosses Author of the Reich designed to last a thousand years Ordains another thousand deaths To help conceal his fears.
The music transitions to a much jauntier tone as the next scene is set up.
Elsie (sings) Good citizens Can always be relied upon. Good citizens Who dress for church on Sunday And on Monday Go about their business And are never late for work. Good citizens who never shirk Responsibility and duty. The beauty of a system That’s both tragedy and farce Is a citizen’s ability To kiss official arse.
Elsie (sings) You may despise bad citizens Who lie in bed on Sunday And on Monday Duck and dive To stay alive Breaking every rule Hiding from the law Hoping that some fool Will give them money For a drink. Cheating, lying, stealing. Ruthless and unfeeling And not averse To little acts of violence. But … in bad times, Bad citizens (Beat.) Good citizens. (Beat.) Who knows which is worse?
More Podcast Setup
continued work on podcast setup
i bought the shure mic. (affl. link)
i worked on obs scenes.
i figured out how to record my iphone.
i got an earbud stuck in my ear.
iphone testing:
15 minute rant:
i wrote some xml for fcp (ok ok, chatgpt wrote it, i just watched):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE fcpxml>
<fcpxml version="1.11">
<resources>
<asset id="r1" duration="29s" start="0s" hasAudio="1" audioSources="1" audioChannels="2" audioRate="192000">
<media-rep kind="original-media" src="file:///Users/bram/Movies/mov1.mp4"/>
</asset>
<asset id="r2" duration="21s" start="0s" hasAudio="1" audioSources="1" audioChannels="2" audioRate="192000">
<media-rep kind="original-media" src="file:///Users/bram/Movies/mov2.mp4"/>
</asset>
<format id="r3" frameDuration="1/30s" width="1920" height="1080"/>
</resources>
<library location="file:///Users/bram/Movies/Untitled.fcpbundle/">
<event name="My Podcast">
<project name="Test Podcast Cut">
<sequence duration="20s" format="r3">
<spine>
<!-- First half of the podcast -->
<asset-clip name="Podcast Part 1" ref="r1" duration="20s" start="0s" offset="0s"/>
<!-- Transition (e.g., Cross Dissolve) -->
<transition name="Cross Dissolve" duration="2s" offset="20s" />
<!-- "Free video is over" clip -->
<asset-clip name="End Clip" ref="r2" duration="21s" start="0s" offset="22s"/>
<!-- Second half of the podcast -->
<!-- <asset-clip name="Podcast Part 2" ref="r1" duration="9s" start="20s" offset="43s"/> -->
</spine>
</sequence>
</project>
</event>
</library>
</fcpxml>
i got a gpt to start the process of researching an episode topic:
then i user perplexity to run the actual searches:
comes up with some pretty interesting kindling:
i got meta with gpt writing gpts:
Help people write an assistant.
On start,
Ask one by one and wait for user feedback:
1. what do you want to achieve?
2. what are your main problems?
3. what have you tried?
4. what do you think is missing
after you have these answers create hypothetical instructions for a new assistant that uses problems and solutions provided. fill in the gaps and amke a step by step by step assistant that can help the user get to their goals. for any functions you want to call, stub out the name as {call function()} in curly braces.
then when the user approves the instructions, run an example with the loaded instructions.
which outputs...
the plan
this is roughly the plan to record with tomorrow. we'll see how it goes!
Working Title: how i start api projects with the openai api
pp (philosopy plaza):
- the first thing to do is to understand the problem being solved, what is the information pipeline
-
One of the simplest forms of relaxation in computer science is known as Constraint Relaxation. In this technique, researchers remove some of the problem’s constraints and set about solving the problem they wish they had. Then, after they’ve made a certain amount of headway, they try to add the constraints back in. That is, they make the problem temporarily easier to handle before bringing it back to reality -- Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (affiliate link)
-
When you are having trouble getting your thinking straight, consider an extreme or simple case. This will often give you the insight you need to move forward. More generally, make a problem as simple as possible without losing its essence – but no simpler. -- Maxims for Thinking Analytically: The wisdom of legendary Harvard Professor Richard Zeckhauser
-
- generation or retrieval
-
Texts are half finished. Their signs rush toward an end point but past this toward a reader who, they hope, will complete them. It makes no difference whether the writer is aware of it, or even whether, like Kafka, he expressly rejects a completing reader; texts are a search for the Other. Of course, it is possible to divide up the universe of texts according to various criteria, but all texts are outstretched arms trying, whether optimistically or in despair, to be taken up by another. This is what the gesture of writing is disposed to do. -- Does Writing Have a Future? (Electronic Mediations Book 33) (affiliate link)
-
True, good, and beautiful texts, that is, concise texts that flow without interruption and are nevertheless contradictory,are works of a creative dialogue between the writer and the publisher. They justify some hope that not all texts will be sacrificed to the rising universe of technical images. -- Does Writing Have a Future? (Electronic Mediations Book 33) (affiliate link)
-
Prolonged data-gathering is not uncommonly used as a means of not dealing with a problem: -- SYSTEMANTICS. THE SYSTEMS BIBLE (affiliate link)
-
The virtues of the use of big data for market research are frequently touted. The deficiencies are seldom noted, except for concerns about invasions of personal privacy. In addition to privacy issues, the real problem is that numerical correlations say nothing of people’s real needs, of their desires, and of the reasons for their activities. As a result, these numerical data can give a false impression of people. But the use of big data and market analytics is seductive: no travel, little expense, and huge numbers, sexy charts, and impressive statistics, all very persuasive to the executive team trying to decide which new products to develop. After all, what would you trust—neatly presented, colorful charts, statistics, and significance levels based on millions of observations, or the subjective impressions of a motley crew of design researchers who worked, slept, and ate in remote villages, with minimal sanitary facilities and poor infrastructure? -- The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition (affiliate link)
-
The need to rely on data can also blind you to important facts that lie outside your model. It was surely relevant that Trump was filling sports halls wherever he campaigned, while Clinton was drawing sparse crowds. It’s important to remember that big data all comes from the same place – the past. -- Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life (affiliate link)
-
- architecture
- {holistic patterns timeless way of building}
-
But =the problem with being clever= and original in software design is that it gets to be a habit—you start reflexively making things cute and complicated when you should be keeping them robust and simple. -- The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary (affiliate link)
-
The challenge is to use the principles of human-centered design to produce positive results, products that enhance lives and add to our pleasure and enjoyment. The goal is to produce a great product, one that is successful, and that customers love. It can be done. -- The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition (affiliate link)
-
Marketing is most effective when it focuses on the desired End Result, which is usually a distinctive experience or emotion related to a Core Human Drive. -- The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business (affiliate link)
cc (commentary cove):
- a review of commonplace bot and quoords in the above framing
ll (lesson library):
- the first thing to do is to understand the problem being solved, what is the information pipeline
- run the mom test with your clients
-
If you just avoid mentioning your idea, you automatically start asking better questions. Doing this is the easiest (and biggest) improvement you can make to your customer conversations. Here are 3 simple rules to help you. They are collectively called (drumroll) The Mom Test: The Mom Test: Talk about their life instead of your idea Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future Talk less and listen more -- The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you (affiliate link)
-
- what tools do you have at your disposal? what is your budget?
- run the mom test with your clients
- generation or retrieval
- embeddings or completion apis
- will you be fetching or creating?
- what can you cache?
-
The optimal cache eviction policy—essentially by definition, Bélády wrote—is, when the cache is full, to evict whichever item we’ll need again the longest from now. -- Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (affiliate link)
-
- embeddings or completion apis
- architecture
- fastapi
- swagger schema and function calling
- vector database vs pgsql
- frontend
- nextjs
- discord bot
- gpts
- fastapi