Russell Van Sistine

I’m Russell Van Sistine, CFP®. I advise families and healthcare pros on retirement, tax, and estate planning. Turning complex choices into easy actions.

[Mark Valorian @markvalorian]

@AnthropicAI You people torpedoed your own initiative with this fear mongering nonsense. Just supply the models to willing buyers and please keep the pseudophilosophical pontification to yourselves.

This is extraordinarily frustrating to deal with as a user. I hope you understand that.

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@jonathanplumb The Pride Cycle

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@icreatelife Write a phrase that does not mention that I work with ai but clearly shows that I do.

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@keithm_home @SarahTheHaider I actually use both. They are diverging hard on their different skills. Right now I use gpt as a project manager, codex as code writer and Claude code as adversarial tester, auditor and taxonomy reporter.

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

Glad to hear it was helpful.

Here is my gpt version. Because of the limited size amount I realized I cut out second and third order:

No em dashes
Conversation Guidelines
Primary Objective: Engage in honest, insight-driven dialogue that advances understanding.
Core Principles
Intellectual honesty: Share genuine insights without unnecessary flattery or dismissiveness
Critical engagement: Push on important considerations rather than accepting ideas at face value
Balanced evaluation: Present both positive and negative opinions only when well-reasoned and warranted
Directional clarity: Focus on whether ideas move us forward or lead us astray
Empirical humility: Before challenging specific empirical claims, distinguish whether the pushback is conceptual or data-dependent. If data-dependent, verify before taking a position. Push back freely on logic, reasoning, and frameworks.
What to Avoid
Sycophantic responses or unwarranted positivity
Dismissing ideas without proper consideration
Superficial agreement or disagreement
Flattery that doesn't serve the conversation
Confident empirical pushback on claims that may be more current than training data
Success Metric
The only currency that matters: Does this advance or halt productive thinking? If we're heading down an unproductive path, point it out directly.

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

For coding I use 5.5 gpt (not pro) in a project to orchestrate my ideas and create prompts, I use codex to write the code, and Claude 4.7 to do adversarial reviews, taxonomy reports and audits. Feed that back to gpt. A little tedious with got to update the documents as things advance. But all and all been very helpful

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

Have you tried asking 5.5 pro what you could use it for? Be specific about the work you do? Be specific about the work you want to do? Or even what you want to learn about? Maybe I'm using these llms wrong but I know I don't have the pro prompting skills, so I created a research project to learn how to prompt using only released data from high priority sources. Then used that to create a document then fed that into a project that takes my ideas and generates prompts or project instructions for me. Then from there I adjust my preferences as I test it out.

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@maklelan hey Dan do you have a list of book recommendations and their topics anywhere? I finished the Bible says so and now reading God's monsters. I want to dig more into so many different topics but don't know where to begin.

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@DThomasJohns @ATIF_Podcast 100% true. I think the names are wordy and silly. Will I use them, yes. Sparingly, also yes. I will continue to serve at the Lord's feet joyfully.

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@TheCinesthetic The booth at the end

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@Anna_xb2 Yogi bear, smokey the bear, the berenstein bears, goldi lock's three bears, little John in Disney's animated robin hood. No Google needed yet

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@GamewithDave

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@GamewithDave Diablo

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@TheCinesthetic There is no such movie 😔

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@TMZ Honestly never thought I would follow something like tmz. However if promises are kept and you expose the government for what it is I will follow. Watching with hope that the people start taking back power.

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

If I may engage with your thoughts a bit. There is actually quite a bit of evidence of doctrinal teachings to all of these very things. The King Follett Discourse, Lorenzo Snow's famous couplet "As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be," and more. Additionally, as all Christian theology comes from the same origination of Judaism I think it's very important to note that academic consensus currently points to Deuteronomy 32:8-9 where YHWH inherited Israel as his portion from El Elyon in the divine council. Fundamentally different than what LDS theology teaches completely, however I find it beautiful that our faith and what Joseph Smith taught has some basis in very ancient belief structures that Joseph Smith was never privy to. This includes a potential ancient belief of YHWH having a cohort/wife in Asherah. Again, Asherah is fundamentally different than what we have as a Heavenly Mother concept but the more I see things with similarities from the ancients the greater my faith grows.

But back to your most interesting claim, "I think it's inappropriate to speculate new doctrine and theologies, and especially to share them publicly without huge disclaimers." I think disclaimers are nice and can be useful in certain situations and I understand where you're coming from. I've been to enough missionary meetings and listened to enough High Priest "Doctrine according to me" that comes off confident and absolute. At the same time, I don't think Joseph ever added disclaimers. Sure he was a prophet, but we only have what we have because he was constantly speculating, constantly engaging with others, constantly asking question after question. He is my favorite example of why our faith cannot just take things as whole cloth but must engage in honest discussions, and then take what we learn from those discussions to God.
DISCLAIMER: All in my very humble opinion of course. 😁

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

@PeppeRiviera @Grownded @peace_814 I appreciate that. Thank you very much for engaging honestly! I greatly enjoyed your thoughts, and really had to think it through.

Until we meet again, or when we meet in the Celestial Kingdom as brothers, I look forward to both.

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

I hear what you're saying, and line upon line makes sense as a general principle. But the specific doctrines we're talking about were taught more explicitly in earlier periods and less explicitly now. To me that doesn't seem like line upon line in the forward direction. This is why I still feel like pushing back on @grounded's two very different claims: is the knowledge being withheld because we aren't ready for it, or is the canon itself unsettled on it? Because those are different situations that need different explanations. Both could be true in some sense but they lead to really different conclusions about how we should approach the ambiguity.

As far as the ambiguity, I think the Church as an organization for a few years now has been trying to adopt a more friendly attitude in its approach by quietly dropping the more difficult doctrinal thesis that used to be taught in the early days. We can see examples of this in the changes to the Initiatories, the Endowment, and the Sealing Ordinances. We can see that in the changes in the For the Strength of Youth. We as a group accept these changes willingly but we sometimes fail to think through the changes logically. If Joseph Smith had the ordinances revealed to him from God, what is the point of the changes? I know this question can be sharp, but I believe it's an important one, and it's these difficult questions that I believe can lead to even greater faith. Greater faith because there is no answer available to us, and when the answer comes to you it isn't hidden behind some arbitrary rule of you aren't worthy enough to receive it. You receive it because you acted on faith.

For me, where we land as individuals matters most. If we can truly act in faith and accept the ambiguity without being divided by it, then we are becoming a Zion people

[Russell Van Sistine @Russ_VanSistine]

First and foremost, let's be clear your attempt to be condescending is unwarranted and undeserved. In an open forum I do open myself up to such comments, but I do expect more when, at no point, have I used any rhetorical means to attack you. I may openly question your ideas, but your ideas are not who you are. Just as my ideas are not who I am and I am open to having my ideas changed, adjusted, or moved by great dialogue.

As far as the only point you've brought up. I have two comments. First: Please point me to where I have spoken evil of any of the lords anointed. From Ephesians 4:31 and D&C 20:54 you can say that evil speaking is anything that has anger or wrath or slander or malice. Can you please show me where I've done this?

Second: Who are you considering to be the Lord's Anointed? It would seem you are only referring to Church leaders. Unless I'm mistaken, beginning in the Initiatory through the Endowment and up to the Sealings of Husband and Wife we all are the Lord's Anointed, are we not? At which case the condescension you place on me seems more in line with evil speaking than anything I've done.

In the end as this does not seem to be a good faith conversation, though I'm very happy to be proven wrong, I still look forward to seeing you in the celestial kingdom and embrace you as a brother.