07·05

Exocortex, daemon, memory palace… ?

A few weeks ago I migrated my full dev environment and agents onto an always-on VPS, originally inspired by levelsio's setup. Always-on agents with high permission thresholds and broad tool use dramatically expanded what felt possible. I can now kick off large, goal-based projects and go to bed or hit the gym. With the quality of Fable, and likely every frontier model from here on out, I now only really feel bottlenecked by my ideas and my ability to articulate and define them clearly.

I was also inspired by Karpathy's idea of an LLM-managed knowledge wiki — one that ingests raw data sources, then organizes, formats, and links everything: viewable in Obsidian, easily traversable by AI. And by Satya Nadella's essay on the compounding value of owning and continually growing your own data ecosystem that you can plug any AI model into. The model layer should be agnostic — the value comes from owning the compounding knowledge, judgment, and creativity that gets encoded in the system. He was talking about organizations, but I think the concept is equally valuable for individuals.

This website was created — and will be updated and maintained — by an agent that sits on top of my personal knowledge wiki, which syncs and organizes all my personal notes and data on my life. These items were automatically compiled from notes I had dropped into the system, with only a little bit of editorial oversight from me.

I'm still toying with names for the system: exocortex? daemon? memory palace with a staff? Excited to see where it goes, and I'll be writing more about it soon.

MY MEMORY SYSTEM

A Rationalist’s Guide to Manifestation

An essay I read a few months ago that attempts to take the woo woo out of manifestation.

One idea from this essay has stuck with me: the world can’t respond to who you are or what you want if you don't reveal either. Get clear on your values, interests, and goals. Then put them out into the world—through conversations, projects, writing, or simply asking. Opportunities often come not from luck, but from making yourself legible.

It’s one of the reasons I’m building this site and becoming more proactive online and in other areas of my life: to share what I’m genuinely interested in and create more surface area for serendipity.

ISABEL UNRAVELED ON SUBSTACK

I feel everything — a found-footage life montage

Every once in a while the IG algo gives you something really cool, like this reel. Oxis makes music and visuals that blend the digital with the organic, nostalgic with futuristic. This one feels like a memory from a life you haven’t lived yet—tender, wistful, and strangely hopeful. Watch it with sound.

@OXIS ON INSTAGRAM

Stephen Biesty's Cross-Section books

This popped up on my X feed and unlocked a childhood memory. I recognized the illustrations immediately and realized these were books my dad used to read to me. I remember being fascinated by the intricate cross-sections of castles, submarines, and tanks. A fond memory, and a great gift book for a kid.

VIA THINKINGWEST ON X