Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

The Prison RPG
August 20, 2025
alethiometer prison tattoo RPG game random

I’ve been wrestling with a peculiar thought experiment for a couple of years now, one that keeps surfacing in my mind like a persistent itch. It starts with a scenario that’s deliberately stark: imagine you’re alone in a prison cell with absolutely no variation in your environment. The lights never shut off, there’s no way to tell time, and you can’t see anything through the window except an identical empty cell across the way. You have a concrete slab for a bed, basic plumbing that can’t be manipulated for entertainment, and clothing that’s been thoroughly searched. The key constraint here is that there’s truly nothing variable about your situation—no loose buttons to throw, no interesting floor tiles to count, no external inputs whatsoever.

In this environment, how do you generate a random number? It’s a question that sounds academic until you consider its implications. Sure, you could think of a word and count its letters, or try to come up with numbers “randomly” in your head, but these approaches introduce significant bias. Your brain has patterns, preferences, tendencies that make true randomness nearly impossible. If you’re stuck in that cell for months or years, rolling virtual sixes over and over again because of cognitive bias could seriously impact whatever mental game you’re trying to play.

On AI - Why I’m Using It Despite Everything
August 15, 2025
AI Technology

I want to start posting about AI. I’ve been working with large language models—ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Midjourney for image generation—and I want to write about what I’ve learned. But before I do that, I need to be absolutely clear about my position on AI itself.

If you disagree with what I’m about to say so fundamentally that you can’t stomach reading about my actual use of these tools, then my suggestion is simple: keep those thoughts to yourself. I have zero interest in debating whether or not to use AI. I’ve already put considerable thought into this decision, and this post exists to explain my reasoning—not to invite arguments about it.

Projects Progress
August 07, 2025
TeamBeat projects Sn Ableton AI

I have a few technical projects that I’m working on, but they are moving very slowly. Little’s Law has taken effect, where working on multiple things at once makes everything progress at a glacial pace. Let’s talk about the things I’m doing and maybe write out some progress. I might also cover some other topics, like how I’m using current AI techniques to get better at leveraging technology.

One project is called Team Beat. It’s software that organizes a retrospective into phases: a discovery phase where people can submit cards to a board, a voting phase where participants vote on the most important cards, and a discussion phase to talk about those cards. The software takes all the notes from the retrospective and puts them into a markdown document that you can save. The tool works well, and a couple of teams at work are using it. However, there are issues with it. The real-time board submissions are powered by WebSockets written in Go, which connects to the database storing all this information. One problem is that although Go performs well, configuration exists in the front end that really should be part of the back end. This disconnection of config makes it hard to filter down to specific user details in some situations. For example, every action on a board is broadcast on a single channel delivered to all users, requiring them all to fetch new information from the API instead of receiving simple updates.

Rethinking My Morning Routine
May 21, 2025
morning exercise

I’ve been thinking again about my morning routine and ways to improve upon my currently relaxed weekday schedule.

Right now, my mornings consist of coming downstairs, making breakfast, and scrolling through email and social media with my coffee and bagel. Literature suggests this digital-first approach isn’t ideal, and I’m beginning to agree. However, I still need a dedicated time slot for these activities, as processing them too late in the day reduces their usefulness.

Mondropop
May 17, 2025
app iphone mondropop ios code coding

I’ve been creating a new game for the iPhone that I am calling Mondropop. The idea of the game is, like many other games, you have blocks in a grid that are all different colors. When you touch any of the groups of blocks of the same color, that group is removed from the board and all the pieces above those blocks fall into the open spaces.

You get points for clearing blocks using a specific formula where the larger the group, the more points you get. Towards the end of the game, if you clear a column, the columns will slide together to close the gap, allowing blocks on either side of the empty space to connect. At the end, you get a score to see how well you did.