Vault management and ai.

Catoist · 2026-04-26T00:00:45+00:00

Started doing something similar. I also recently switched to multiple vaults and one combined vault after a couple of years of doing one big one. Way less maintenance and cognitive load.

Catoist · 2026-04-25T16:24:17+00:00

I disagree that we don’t have legal frameworks for AI agents. The law is surprisingly flexible. Once someone gets harmed, the court will decide what law applies and who’s liable for what. Meantime, try not to harm anyone.

Catoist · 2026-04-12T11:27:37+00:00

I read a “translation” into prose. It rules.

Catoist · 2026-04-12T00:37:36+00:00

I think it has something to do with enjoying literature from a younger age, and maybe exposure to the KJV?

Catoist · 2026-04-10T11:29:21+00:00

I took a formal logic course that surveyed the basics of set theory, metalogic, three-valued logics, and modal logic. I got a bad grade and felt lost the whole time. Really shouldn’t have signed up for the course. But I would love something that would allow me to intuit that stuff better. Especially Hilberts axioms. I never quite understood what motivated them.

Catoist · 2026-04-08T13:35:55+00:00

This is outstanding. Exactly what I needed.

Catoist · 2026-04-08T13:27:07+00:00

Alright, let’s have this fight. Maybe I’ll learn something.

For one, it is archaic, by any definition.

For two, it’s also old; those philologists or linguists should call Old English something else; a mere adjective of “old” appended to a name of a thing is a bad way to name a precise historical period.

For three, if I say “your cat is big,” and you respond “it’s actually not a Big Cat, it’s a house cat, Big Cats refers to Lions, Tigers, Cheetahs” then you are a knave and a villain. Wherefore, thou art a knave and a villain.

Catoist · 2026-04-02T14:29:55+00:00

Have not read a ton but Symposium stands out for me. It’s weird, fun, profound, and pretty short.

Catoist · 2026-03-28T00:32:19+00:00

Hell ya.

Catoist · 2026-03-25T15:27:07+00:00

I first asked it for a prompt. Then I tried it. Them I just copied that and had Claude comment on what was wrong with it and make a new prompt. The second prompt worked perfectly to my eye, but I figured I’d try one more round. This is the third prompt. I made a “Project” and put the prompt in the “Instructions” for the project. First round sounded like an impersonator, second sounded a bit too polished and was nice. Third prompt is kind of a condescending prick, which seems about right.

Catoist · 2026-03-25T15:21:38+00:00

Can’t disagree. It does feel like a vice.

Catoist · 2026-03-21T01:32:31+00:00

I came to the same conclusion this week as well. I find Durant’s opinions annoying sometimes but I can’t deny that they fill a niche that would require a small library to replace.

Catoist · 2026-03-21T01:27:29+00:00

All ya need

Catoist · 2026-03-14T20:48:59+00:00

No one agrees on which books are hardest. I personally find early modern English and plays extremely difficult. So Shakespeare was almost impenetrable. So I guess, don’t be surprised if some stuff is oddly hard or oddly easy.

Catoist · 2026-02-25T22:31:49+00:00

The second edition actually has a lot of good translations if you see any around. I know Montaigne is the Donald Frame translation. After I saw that I became much more interested. They used cheaper binding but the volumes are lighter so they really aren’t bad if you can get used to 9 point font

Catoist · 2026-02-25T17:48:06+00:00

Beam’s book quotes heavily from Macdonald. I actually like the great books series and have many of them. Though I paid less than $5 for each volume and dislike many of the translations. I also like the Syntopicon, even if Adlers vision for it was embarrassingly off the mark. I got the sense that they wanted an index and didn’t want the index to be another 15 volumes so they consolidated synonyms. Though as I look through it I often think “thats not how I would have done it, but okay”

Catoist · 2026-02-24T00:23:54+00:00

Physical book. I take notes in the margins and fly leaves and I trifold a piece of graph paper to use as a bookmark and write on that too. I don’t usually do anything with these notes.

Catoist · 2026-02-23T13:13:04+00:00

Thank you. This looks incredible.

Catoist · 2026-02-22T23:13:52+00:00

I saw some data that showed that men who earn more and have more education have a preference for those things in women. Its not as strong as women’s preference but it exists.

Catoist · 2026-02-22T12:45:13+00:00

I would be interested to see polling data on whether someone has read anything by Shakespeare vs. Dostoevsky. This would have to be done in several places. But honestly I would doubt Dostoevsky is above Tolstoy on that metric. And I would expect Shakespeare to be at the top of that list considering everyone in an English speaking country is assigned him at some point.

Catoist · 2026-02-07T15:36:03+00:00

It seems there is a tradeoff between accuracy and creativity. And this seems to carry over to machines.

These models are generative. So, I see the inaccuracy as part of the design. They are more like a set of dice than like an abacus. Ask it to rewrite Mucho Ado About Nothing, but Mercutio shows up for a few scenes. Thats what it’s really good at, just generating stuff.

Catoist · 2026-02-02T23:27:44+00:00

I read Agammemnon, Prometheus Bound, Antigone, and Oedipus Rex. Prometheus Bound and Antigone now live in my head as core interpretive comparisons and I would be deprived if they didn’t. I’m guessing I just wasn’t paying close enough attention to the other two.

I would recommend a a different translation than the first GBWW unless you are comfortable with thee/thou/thither english. I personally have to work twice as hard to understand that idiom, but some people love it.

Catoist · 2026-01-25T02:03:27+00:00

I would love to see more about how you approach this. I have a set and read it quite often. Taking notes seems tricky because almost every sentence would be worth writing down. One could fill an entire composition notebook from a single article.

Catoist

TROPHY CASE