Tanner West

Glory to God ☝️ | Software Dev | Wisdom Seeker | Author of @useRNRocket

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

I've been experimenting with simple but powerful AI-powered workflows I've dubbed "Mini Agents." In this article I dive into a pattern I call the "magic bucket." It includes a link to a GitHub repo with a working example. Check it out!
https://t.co/B0xMFAXzKl

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

It is sometimes terribly difficult to choose how to act during moments of heightened negative emotion, but luckily I���m in a season of my life when I have plenty of daily opportunities to practice - and little time for much else.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

Equanimity is my favorite hobby 🧵

We have a toddler and a newborn now. Some days are hard. I get tired, frustrated, and stressed. There’s little free time , and virtually no time for hobbies. So I have made equanimity my favorite hobby.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

The other is the “sacred pause” - a moment where you stop and notice sensations arising in your body before reacting to a difficult situation.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

RLP (Religion, Literature, and Philosophy) teaches us that profound irony is part of the human condition. We learn not to be surprised by it.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

My role model right now is our seven month old baby girl. Why?

- infinite curiosity
- zero ulterior motives
- always operating in good faith
- iron will
- has mastered the art of learning
- sees the world through a lens of wonder

...I could go on.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

@jamonholmgren #1. So much easier to read.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

@RyanHoliday Or if it's just not the right time. Sometimes I'll start a book two or three times before I ultimately read it through.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

A lot of wisdom is just an appreciation for nuance and a tolerance for ambiguity.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

@waitbutwhy Applied experience

[David Perell @david_perell]

Reading the Bible is table stakes if you want to be an educated Westerner.

Here's why:

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

Hallucination is GPT's version of bullshitting. It's not that it intends to lie, it's just that its not concerned with telling the truth. It is only concerned with producing the best response to a prompt, whether it is factual or not.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

GPT is the ultimate bullshit artist, if you accept Harry Frankfurt's definition of the term. 🧵

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

GPT (and other natural language AIs) are known to "hallucinate," which essentially means it will sometimes "make things up" that sound convincing but are false. This is one of the main concerns that keeps Google from relying more on AI in its search results.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

Of course, GPT will soon likely be able to produce whatever format is asked of students. 🤷‍♂️ "How and why do we write" is just one of the many existential questions we'll soon be faced with.

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

With GPT available to students now, English departments may be headed for their "Common Core Math" moment, where students will somehow have to "show their work" in some novel way instead of just producing an essay. What would this look like? 🧵

[Tanner West @dev_twest]

In the long run, such a strategy could help kids understand the purposes of writing (namely to help them think clearly about a topic and to articulate their own insights and opinions), rather than just regurgitate what they think the teacher wants.