> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bramadams.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# MTA GPT Inc
- URL: https://www.bramadams.dev/standup-2024-01-09/
- Published: 2024-01-10T03:07:13.000Z
- Updated: 2024-01-25T05:03:51.000Z
- Description: protobuf, chaining, dead beetles in your ear
- Author: Bram Adams
- Tags: standup, #u-bg-feature-image, #u-color-text-light

💡

This is a daily [standup](https://www.bramadams.dev/tag/standup/) post of the work put into maintaining bramadams.dev. **Ex nihilo nihil fit*.

## Newsletter (Sundays)

- i liked how [last issue](https://www.bramadams.dev/issue-42/) went, specifically the drawing on an index card > edit photo workflow. adds a dash of human-ness to the work
- next issue im thinking about a potential economic landscape for the creator economy in a llm world

## Software (Saturdays)

- creating a gpt for the mta where ideally a user can type "L east 14th" to get the upcoming train times and any info on delays. working with `GTFS-realtime protocol` is not straightforward, but there is a promising repo from a similar project when ppl were [putting screens in their homes w train times](https://github.com/jpreardon/good-morning-display/tree/f22c665d4d33742f0bd7bea2de1173ee661b3965?ref=bramadams.dev)
- the challenge wont be parsing bc functions are pretty straightforward but managing speed and finding the right convo starters

### AI Tip

- i found out (accidentally) you can chain multiple assistants in the same thread. This allows for some pretty interesting message threads as diff assistants "weigh in" to the same thread
- dont batch a job into chroma without `PersistentClient` unless you want to run that same batch every runtime

## Books (5/month)

💡

links are affiliate! if you pick up a copy, i get a little kickback!

- [**Supergods**](https://amzn.to/41GIFAH?ref=bramadams.dev) **\- finished! (2.35/5 ⭐️)**
- [Black Rednecks & White Liberals](https://amzn.to/3tGNFsj?ref=bramadams.dev) \- 58%
- [Command & Control](https://amzn.to/3TIyjOK?ref=bramadams.dev) \- 23%
- [At Home in the Universe ](https://amzn.to/3H2FlXc?ref=bramadams.dev)\- 36%
- [Napoleon: A Life](https://amzn.to/3tzoiIY?ref=bramadams.dev) \- 49%
- [Glass Bead Game](https://amzn.to/48gE8Hz?ref=bramadams.dev) \- 44% (+3%)
  - "We do not intend to flee from the vita activa to the vita contemplativa, nor vice versa, but to keep moving forward while alternating between the two, being at home in both, partaking of both."
- [River of the Gods](https://amzn.to/4axpAoF?ref=bramadams.dev) \- 41% (*+9%*)
  - these guys are getting FUCKED UP by nature
  - "For the next few days, Speke could not even open his mouth and was able to consume nothing more than broth. He was now, moreover, not only nearly blind but partially deaf. The infection left behind by the beetle and his penknife “ate a hole between that orifice \[his ear\] and the nose,” Speke wrote, “so that when I blew it, my ear whistled so audibly that those who heard it laughed.” To his surprise, however, as the days passed he found that the attack had actually helped to improve his sight. “It was not altogether an unmixed evil,” he wrote, “for the excitement occasioned by the beetle’s operations acted towards my blindness as a counter-irritant by drawing the inflammation away from my eyes.” The beetle itself, dead but still stubbornly lodged in Speke’s ear, remained with him until, some six months later, a leg, a wing, and a few other tiny body parts were carried out in the wax."