Paul Sturrock
@psturrock
Founder climb.works
Paul Sturrock
nichenavigation.substack.com
Christopher Alexander has an observation about problem solving that I like: you should always be focusing on solving the part that has the fewest degrees of freedom.
When figuring out how to design a kitchen, for instance, there are a bunch of subproblems to solve: where to put the stove and the windows and the kitchen table. And which of these ha... See more
Henrik Karlssonsubstack.comdegrees of freedom
Side projects as the key to the good life By Marty Bell • 31 Jul 2025
When I was 13, I created a chat room for teenagers to talk about art and photography (the tagline was, if I remember, “The future of art but we don’t give a fuck”). I think that was the first self-made project I put out into the world, and it taught me one of the most important le
... See moreThe Savage Irony Of Trying To Be Productive - Oliver Burkeman
youtube.comIn something he calls the “theory of maximum taste,” New York Times columnist David Brooks says that each person’s mind is defined by its upper limit—the best content that it habitually consumes and is capable of consuming.
Polina Marinova Pompliano • Hidden Genius
There is always some recoding going on when you read, even if you’re not aware of it. In AI-speak, you’re embedding the work in your own context, and inevitably applying some perceptual filters in the process. When these filters constitute a conscious stance that characterizes you as a reader, you’re doing non-trivial, and perhaps skillful kinds of... See more
Texts as Toys
By reading with LLMs, I mean either loading a specific text into an LLM and accessing it indirectly ( interrogative play ), or using an LLM on a parallel track to support direct reading ( perspectival play ), with the relative loading of each mode being a function of your expertise and/or enjoyment level in the subject.
Texts as Toys
And the last third will pivot and learn to enjoy toy-making, and do increasing amounts of it. These are the ones we are interested in. I count myself in this set.
Texts as Toys
We can (notionally and provisionally) guess that the three groups constituted roughly a third each, and that the breakdown generally correlates with both age and maturity in the older skills (cf: Douglas Adams’ three laws of technology adoption).
Texts as Toys
Speaking as someone older than 35, Douglas Adams’ third law is BS, which only applies to a narrow segment of people—referring to their quantity and quality.
Yeah, I made up a word. I didn’t misspell lucidity .
Ludicity is the ludic quality of an embodied behavior or modality. In this case, text-toy making. You’re allowed to make up words if you’re in the business, just as Lego engineers are allowed to make up new parts.
Ludicity is the ludic quality of an embodied behavior or modality. In this case, text-toy making. You’re allowed to make up words if you’re in the business, just as Lego engineers are allowed to make up new parts.