MTA GPT Inc

Newsletter (Sundays)

• i liked how last issue 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
• 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)

• Supergods - finished! (2.35/5 ⭐️)
• Black Rednecks & White Liberals - 58%
• Command & Control - 23%
• At Home in the Universe - 36%
• Napoleon: A Life - 49%
• Glass Bead Game - 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 - 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."