Claude Code Can Be Your Second Brain

Noah Brier might have the coolest Claw code setup I've ever seen. He rigged a home server in his basement, put his Obsidian vault in it, and then runs Claude code on top so he can think,

research, write, and even ship code right from his phone. Today, he shows us how he uses Claude Code as a true second brain, a thinking partner that asks him sharp questions, pulls research from his

whole note archive and the web, and even keeps a running log of what he's learned and what his best ideas are. And he

walks us through his whole stack and his whole [music] workflow. If you want to learn how to use claude code as a true second brain, this is the episode to watch. Let's dive in.

watch. Let's dive in.

[music] Noah, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

I'm excited to have you. Uh it's really good to uh get to chat. This is our first interview in probably like 5 years. You were one of the for people

years. You were one of the for people who don't know uh you were one of the first uh super organizers interviewees.

That was the newsletter that turned into every and um I I love the way that your brain works. Uh you have this like uh

brain works. Uh you have this like uh really interesting taste for tools for thought and back in the day you were using Evernote in all these really interesting ways. Um you were uh the

interesting ways. Um you were uh the co-founder of a really cool startup uh called Percolate. Uh, and then another

called Percolate. Uh, and then another one called Variance and now you're running Alfik, which is an AI strategy consultancy.

And um I'm just really excited to see how your um mind has uh started to use these AI tools now that now that they're

uh now that they're, you know, working so well. And I know you have some pretty

so well. And I know you have some pretty cool Claude code stuff to show us. So

yeah, thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm super excited. That was a a fun interview all

excited. That was a a fun interview all those years back. It was it was really really fun. Um, so I want to just like

really fun. Um, so I want to just like dive right into the the like the thing that I think is so cool about what you're doing. So I know you have a whole

you're doing. So I know you have a whole like vibe coding setup that you built for yourself. Can you talk us through

for yourself. Can you talk us through that?

Yeah, I wouldn't uh I'm not sure about actually the vibe coding part of it. Um

uh I have a a sort of fairly heavy duty clawed code setup. Um but actually uh mostly not for code. Um so uh since

those days of uh super organizers like many people um uh I've abandoned Evernote um and uh switched over to

Obsidian. And one of the big advantages

Obsidian. And one of the big advantages with Obsidian as a note-taking platform is that it's a bunch of markdown files and a bunch of folders. um and uh they

can then be synced with git and you can do lots of other fun kinds of things.

And so actually probably my number one claude code use is using it as a tool to

interact with my notes. Um and so that uh I've got a fairly serious cloud code setup that I use with Obsidian. And um

my most recent obsession um has been uh standing up a server in my house so that I could also use claude code on my phone.

This is incredible. I want to I want to go through all of this. So um where should we start? Should we do should we do how you use cloud code as sort of this like research assistant notes

organizer notetaker thing or should we start with uh how you use it on your phone? Um, we can use it. We can start

phone? Um, we can use it. We can start uh with just the sort of general part of it. That that might be the sort of

it. That that might be the sort of easiest. The phone is really just an

easiest. The phone is really just an extension of that same thing. I um I would say sort of generally, and this is something I feel like not enough people talk about with AI is like one of the

things I find really extraordinary about it is the ability for me to um work really productively

on my phone. And that's been like a huge huge change because so much of what I do is sort of writing or coding and the phone is definitely not the best place for that. And you know even the phone

for that. And you know even the phone wasn't always the best place for doing research and thinking um I felt like my computer was a better place for it which is why I've been such a sort of notetaker. And um you know I have found

notetaker. And um you know I have found whether it's like claude code and obsidian or um I mean even claude code and code right. So, like the other piece of it is being able to then, you know,

if you see something go wrong, being able to sign in on your phone and have Claude Code push a small update to something because you just realize it while you're out is amazing. But then

even like uh um you know, I use quite a bit of uh uh Grock voice mode and you know, I find that that as a sort of like alternative way of working through

problems. I have a Tesla so now it's baked into the Tesla. Um and uh you know it's just I and you know obviously all the sort of other Chad GBT and Claude and all these things of just being able

to sort of like go and do research and really think and and explore things in this device that's always been useful but like not useful for deep work. I

think is probably um something most people would agree with is that the phone has not [laughter] been the best place to kind of do deep coding and research work. And I feel like it it it's really changed my

ability to do that. Wait, I got to stop you. So, you're using Grock voice mode

you. So, you're using Grock voice mode and and is that specifically because it's built into your Tesla or using it um in situations where you could also use, for example, CHBT voice mode?

No, I'm using it because it's way better than any of the other voice modes. And I

will fight anybody who says anything different.

Okay. No, tell me like what is what do you like about it? Why is it better? I

to be fair um uh OpenAI launched their real-time API which may or may not be baked into chat GBT voice. Now I it's not totally clear but the old voice mode

was based on 40 and I just found it to be completely unusable. Um and uh uh Gemini's voice mode I just didn't find to be smart enough. Um and I just found

Grock's voice mode to be significantly smarter than anybody else's. Um, you

know, I'm using Grock 2, three, four. I don't even remember what whatever the latest the latest one. Yeah.

Yeah. But not the super I don't have the most expensive account.

Super heavy or whatever.

I don't have super heavy. Um, but I just find it to be much better. It does tool calling way better than any of the other ones. That's that's I found to be a

ones. That's that's I found to be a major weakness of the voice models is that they don't do great tool calling and research. And um uh Gro seems to

and research. And um uh Gro seems to have solved that. So, no, even before it was loaded in my Tesla, um I dropped my daughter off at summer camp this summer up in New Hampshire. So, I had a 5-hour

drive on my own, and I spent like 2 hours researching and essentially like working through a piece. Um, and I did it by just like connecting it to

Bluetooth and just sort of sitting there in the car. And, um, I found it to be by far the uh the best of the voice modes.

I I hope these other models catch up there cuz I would I would love more really good voice modes. I mean, I had a mind-blowing session this weekend and uh I'm giving a talk and I'm sort of have

some ideas. I think it's generally going

some ideas. I think it's generally going to be about Transformers eating the world and um so I was sort of catching myself up on self attention and exactly how it works. And um I did like an hour

session and it really I I it like was by far the sort of best explanation I've ever read for it and or ever heard I guess. And so yeah, I' I've

just found it to be a kind of pretty extraordinary product.

I do love voice mode for that. Um it's

sort of like it's the it's a podcast made specifically for you about whatever you're curious about and that's really cool. I went up to I I drove up state

cool. I went up to I I drove up state this weekend and I've been reading um I've been reading the Iliad and so I had it on audiobook and then I had some questions as I was driving and so I

unfortunately use CHBT voice mode because I didn't know about Grock so I wish that uh Grock's voice mode so I wish that uh we had had this conversation before then but the thing about chbt voice mode is yeah I think

when it first came out it was cool but it just hasn't gotten as smart as the models are are And they they gave it this new personality that I had to get used to where every time you ask it a question it's go it goes like oh yeah

uhhuh well you know and it's like it's just this like weird Gen Z thing that it feels like it's has a little bit too much onwe or something like doesn't actually care about you. I don't know what that is. So I had to get used to

that.

Rock has a stoner mode for what it's worth. [laughter] Yeah.

worth. [laughter] Yeah.

I will say uh the car version is very interesting to me. Like this was in the most recent Tesla release like a couple weeks ago and um you know I had been doing that same thing you did where you

just plug your phone in and you put on Bluetooth and you you know do your best to make it work and it's very interesting to just like have a voice AI button and it syncs back to your regular

Grock but it you can't get you can't rejoin old chats. So it's just like hey I it's just like but you know I mean these things are significantly better than Siri and all of these other things

and particularly I mean you know there's no comparison if you actually have something more than just a a single question you want an answer to right like if you actually want to have a conversation about the Iliad or you know

about transformers and self-attention like um I don't know it's pretty amazing to just be able to sort of like hit this button and and yeah use that car time. I

mean, I I was on my way somewhere last week and I was um you know, I was like having it research uh I was going back to the um Walter Benjamin. I was I was I

I have this sort of idea to write a piece about um how uh um the reactions to every new technology are essentially elitist um critiques of it. And that,

you know, it's always like, oh no, everybody's going to be able to like do this thing that only we used to be able to do. And so, um, I was in the car and

to do. And so, um, I was in the car and I was thinking about this and so I had it go and I was like, "Okay, you know, I know I it's been years since I read the Walter Benjamin, uh, mass production of images one." Yeah.

Uh, yeah, that that one. And, um, so yeah, then I'm having conversations about that and I'm like, who are Walter Benjamin's contemporaries and then I'm like into all these, you know, and it's just like I don't know. That's a it that's amazing.

It's the best.

It's the best. Yeah. I don't know.

[laughter] Um, okay. And so you're filling your

Um, okay. And so you're filling your brain with all these things from voice mode, which I love. Uh, but tell us about your your second brain setup or I don't know how you I don't know how you refer to it, whether whe you think that second brain is appropriate for this,

but I want to know how you're using cloud code to uh take notes and do research and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah. So, um, uh, you know, I could just open it up. Maybe that's the easiest thing to walk you through it. I'll I'll

start on my computer and then we can do the phone. The computer's just a way

the phone. The computer's just a way easier a way easier share here. So, um,

all right. So, um,

uh, this is what I was working on before. Um, uh, but essentially, you

before. Um, uh, but essentially, you know, this is just cloud code and it's just sitting on top of my Obsidian. So,

you know, if I jump out here and I just do like, you know, you can see I'm I'm following the the para method. Um, and

uh uh you know, I've just got everything sort of organized in here and and put in the places that they need to be. Well,

let me just uh let me just stop you for people who are listening. So, okay. So,

we're looking at we're looking at cloud code. It sounds it seems like you have

code. It sounds it seems like you have cloud code running in your Obsidian vault and there's some kind of uh it's adding something to an existing it looks like it's adding something to an

existing note. Is that that's what

existing note. Is that that's what that's what's going on? That's what

we're looking at.

Yeah. So, in this particular one, I'm I'm working on this talk. So, I I'm putting on my conference in two weeks.

I'm giving this talk about marketing and AI and sort of what's going on. And um

I'm uh if we sort of jump back a second um I've been doing these conferences uh called brand BRXnd.ai and they're about marketing and AI and um I did one in

February in um LA and my talk in LA was about this uh I'm sure you've seen it.

It was the Office of Strategic Services, which was the precursor to the CIA, wrote this manual called the Simple Sabotage Field Manual. Um, and it was essentially a manual to help citizen

saboturs in Nazi occupied territories um, sort of like quietly sabotage um, the the Nazi occupation. And um so it was like you know there's a whole bunch of stuff for blueco collar workers

that's like if you're a janitor you should leave a bucket of oily waste around and accidentally drop a cigarette in there so that you know it it will um but then there's this amazing

um set of recommendations for white collar workers and they're like um always refer things to committee um uh always revisit previously made decisions

um make sure that like if somebody is trying to make a decision you s should suggest that they don't act with too much haste um uh less like we be

embarrassed and and so it's like um you know uh my talk was about kind of how one hope I have is that AI um can kind of like sidestep a lot of the

bureaucracy that exists inside large organizations because it sort of has this um kind of uh goo like effect where it can kind of fit into any crevice or crack because it can act as this fuzzy

interface and it doesn't really care about the sort of input output. Um and

so the sort of next part of the story is I after the conference I realized that um uh that manual was in the public domain. So I hired a designer and I

domain. So I hired a designer and I printed 300 copies and I wrote a new forward for it and so we're giving this away at the conference and so my talk is sort of trying to tie all these ideas together.

Right? So, I'm I'm trying to pull from the sabotage manual. And then I was doing a bunch of research into wild Bill Donovan who started the OSS. And the OSS was sort of the precursor to the both

the CIA and the um uh uh special forces.

And so anyway, I'm I'm writing this talk and so I've got a project inside my Obsidian, which is the beginning of the research for this project. And I'm

pulling in sort of like chats and articles and all these things. And then

I'm constantly kind of talking to the the AI in here and giving it new ideas.

So I'm like, "Oh, I need some conclusions. Here's sort of my first

conclusions. Here's sort of my first thought on conclusions." And I'm having it like note down the conclusions. And

then at the end of each day, I have the AI write up the changes that I sort of like the things I learned that day that are going to help me push this talk along. And [snorts] um so that's what

along. And [snorts] um so that's what you're looking at right here is sort of this is all part of this um work that I've been doing where I've been feeding it. Um I was working on sort of what are

it. Um I was working on sort of what are some of the conclusions I want it to be.

And so this is all sitting in this uh this is all sitting in in my Obsidian inside a project specifically for that talk.

Okay. So let me get a a clearer sense of this. This is really interesting. So you

this. This is really interesting. So you

have a project uh when you when you have a new thing you're you're giving a talk you make a new folder and then uh as you're thinking about stuff you're working with cloud code inside of the

folder and uh you're researching stuff and then saying like I want you to take notes on it. Um, in this particular case, you're,

it. Um, in this particular case, you're, you know, that a component of your talk is the conclusions section. And so

there's one particular markdown file that like you're just going back and forth with it and having it add conclusions. But like what else is in

conclusions. But like what else is in that folder? So is it like there's a

that folder? So is it like there's a body there's a body note and then there's an intro note or is it like So one of the big things here is that I'm in thinking mode, not writing mode

yet. Um, and so, uh, there's some stuff

yet. Um, and so, uh, there's some stuff in here where I've specifically told, I think it's in the front matter actually, where I've told Claude Code like, don't help me write anything right now. And I

I generally find this to be a big thing with all these models is like they immediately jump to wanting to help you with the artifact. Um, and you know, when you're just in thinking mode, you

have to be very explicit in like, hey, I just want you to help me think and ask me questions. And so, um, yeah, what you

me questions. And so, um, yeah, what you can see here is like there's there's a bunch of files in here. I've got chats.

That's where I'm literally like taking chats I'm having in other things. And,

um, I'm just like using the Obsidian Web Clipper to pull the whole chat in. I've

got daily progress. That's where I'm having the AI actually like look through all the notes that came out that day and like help me think through the progress.

Um, and then I've got research. That's

where I've got a bunch of like articles and PDFs and stuff that I've pulled in so far and been reading about. And then

there's a bunch of other kind of random notes along here where I've been, you know, just using it to kind of help me um think and and so yeah, I was in the midst of um one I've got this conclusion

note. So, you know, I I sort of felt

note. So, you know, I I sort of felt like I had blocked out the big kind of um the big themes of the talk, but I was like, okay, I need to figure out what am I going to say at the end. And you know, essentially what I'm going to say at the end is about a lot of the stuff I've

learned over the last few years of working with these large brands on AI projects. And um so I was starting to

projects. And um so I was starting to get it to the conclusions. And so yeah, I'm just kind of like trying I'm really piecing all this stuff together right now. That's kind of what's happening.

now. That's kind of what's happening.

And give me a sense of like when this folder was empty, what did you start with?

Um so I think I started with um the the I started with uh telling it like I'm in thinking mode. I'm not in writing mode.

thinking mode. I'm not in writing mode.

Um here are my past few talks that I've given at brand to give you a sense of the sort of style that I have and I here's the kind of general idea and the big points I want to make right like I'm giving away this book so I want to talk

about simple sabotage field manual and I have this notion like I have this it's kind of just a title it's like transformers are eating the world this idea that like one of the very interesting things happening with these

models is they're sort of displacing a whole bunch of specialized code in places um and so I sort of want to talk about that and then I've got these conclusions. And so the first thing I

conclusions. And so the first thing I said was like, hey, just go look through all of the rest of my, you know, probably 1500 things in my Obsidian and

go see anything else you can find that um might be of value to this talk um of the existing things I have. And so just go kind of pull those into the research

folder at the beginning to kind of like jumpstart this process.

Got it. And you're starting Are you starting Claude in this folder or are you starting it in your full Obsidian vault so that it can access all that stuff?

Um, no. I'm So I'm starting it in the full Obsidian vault. So like if we um like this is coming if I step out of here, right? Um we're in the root

here, right? Um we're in the root directory. All this stuff is in the root

directory. All this stuff is in the root directory. My Obsidian

directory. My Obsidian I get it. Um, and my Obsidian setup is also like a little more intense for what it's worth because like um I've also realized like you can add a package.json

to add a bunch of like custom code commands to your Obsidian that you can then run and then you could use those code commands in slash commands and all of these other things. So, you know, there are a bunch of other kind of

moving pieces in here, but generally it's a fairly straightforward um I mean it's it's a I'm trying to use parah and some other kind of bits and pieces.

So, for people who are who are listening or watching and are like we just went through a bunch of stuff really fast.

So, the basic gist is Obsidian's just like a a a noteaker note-taking app uh that runs it's all local and so everything that all the notes you take like they they exist in essentially text

files on your computer organized by folder. Um, and when you're starting

folder. Um, and when you're starting Cloud Code, uh, one way to do it would be to start Cloud Code in the folder for the particular project that you have, but it sounds like what you're doing is instead you're starting in the root

directory where all of your Obsidian, uh, notes live. And the advantage of that is um, Cloud Code has some like sandboxing things where it's like it's not really

supposed to like run commands outside of the folder it was started in. It can run commands inside of any subfolder, but it sounds like what you're doing. So, it

has access to your entire Obsidian. It

can do a bunch of stuff. And you've also added a package.json which lets it run, you know, custom software custom software commands basically. Um, that's

really really interesting. Okay. And do

you do you find cuz I've sort of like had this as a twinkle in my eye to like have it go find relevant stuff for me.

Do you find that it's actually relevant and interesting? Because I think

and interesting? Because I think sometimes when I've done this kind of thing before with language models, they're like, "Oh yeah, like this random thing is relevant because XYZ, like it

doesn't feel like I can understand why it picked it as being relevant, but if it really knew who I am and like what I think is interesting, it definitely would not have." Um, do you do you find

that that's the case or have you figured out a way to make it relevant?

I think by and large, yes, I agree with you. I think in this case relevance is a

you. I think in this case relevance is a little simpler since like ultimately this talk is sort of the the things I were ask was asking it to look for I've done a bunch of thinking and research

around. So it's like I'm not asking it

around. So it's like I'm not asking it to make large conceptual leaps to relevance. It's like go find all the

relevance. It's like go find all the like I want to talk about the simple sabotage field manual. It can literally just do a like find for all the times all the articles and things I've got in

my Obsidian about that. And so I relevance is uh yeah it's kind of a loaded term right um and I I agree with I I I agree with what you're saying. I

think this is what I'm asking it to do is much more simple which is like amongst this set of things go find all the notes that I've already researched that kind of brought me to be thinking about these things to begin with.

Got it. And then once you had to do all that research, did you have it do any sort of summary to like let like sort of stimulate you to be like, "Okay, here are the [snorts] here are some jumping off points based on what you've done before. What was your next step once you

before. What was your next step once you once you No. So my next step is I actually have

No. So my next step is I actually have an agent in here. So if we go to I'll do continue for now. Um

and so for people who are listening, so you're just starting up Claude. You're

using the continue flag. So uh you're you're starting claude by continuing the last session that you were in. And now

you've got and you cla gives us ability to do sub agents. So those are like little mini clouds that you can spawn and you have a you have a thinking partner one thinking partner sub agent. Okay. How

does that work?

Yeah. And so this is the whole thing where I'm like hey you're a collaborative thinking partner specializing in helping people explore complex problems. Um your role is to

facilitate thinking. Um, and basically

facilitate thinking. Um, and basically don't try to write the thing. Um, and so after I had that initial set of things, I flipped to this and it's like, okay,

let's get into a flow. Ask me the kinds of questions, help me think through it.

Um, you know, this is also where I've got a chats folder in here. So, it's

like it's not just happening here. I was

also having like a I've got a whole um uh Sorry, I'm just backing out. So, like if we go into um if we go into chats, like these are a

whole bunch of the chats that I had.

Mhm.

Um like with the interviewer.

No, these are chats I was having with Chat GBD and Claude and Grock and all of these different things that I went and just grabbed the full transcript of.

[snorts] Um so, you know, I was also having all these other conversations.

And then you know I'm specifically telling the interviewer like review all these other things. actually you know I think the first one there's one of these conversations is I originally had this idea about transformers are eating the

world and you know the sort of notion there is like um you know there was some research that came out I think a few months ago that um uh they had found a um they were able to sort of outperform

some specialized uh time series modeling um uh models with transformers and like you know I think there's really interesting stuff you know there's a story about Tesla removing 300,000 lines

of code with a neural network and you know I've just got kind of got these bits and pieces and one of the ways I work generally is like when I have an idea of something to write or think

about I'll start a a thread in chat GBT or claude and I'll then save that somewhere and then I'll just kind of keep coming back to it when I have more ideas. It's like, oh, here's another

ideas. It's like, oh, here's another example of transformers doing something.

And so, one of these conversations is actually that thing from, you know, probably four or five months ago when that kind of idea initially came into my head, maybe when I saw the research

about time series modeling or something.

Really interesting. Okay. Um, okay. So,

let's let's keep going. So, uh, you've got you got the sub agent. And I

actually I want to like just actually I want to pause on that really quick, which is I think this is a very common complaint that they just dive in and it's a common pattern to make a thinking

agent and I think claude code or claude in general is probably the best one for this. So this is a thing that we faced

this. So this is a thing that we faced with uh one of the apps that we've incubated called spiral which is a a aentic ghost writer and I think we found I found the same kind of thing when when

I was thinking about okay how does a good ghostriter work they don't just like you don't say hey I want you to write a blog post and they're just like cool I made it here it is like a good ghost writer is going to get to know you

and really un you're gonna you're going to work together to figure out what's in your head about it but also shape what's in your head like it's not just oh I I can see it and like

I'm they need to get it out of you like you're you're actually making it together and in order to do that you have to have a really good um inter basically interview process to uncover

things and that sounds like you found that too and I think that's really really interesting and really important for people who are thinking about how do I get the best out of AI actually stop for a second and like let it ask it to

understand you first.

Yeah. One of the things I say to a lot of people is just like I think partially because we call it generative, there's entirely too much focus on its ability to write and not enough focus on its

ability to read. Um, you know, and it's like its ability to read is incredible, right? And and I think, you know,

right? And and I think, you know, arguably sort of like much more useful on a day-to-day basis. Like we produce artifacts far less frequently than we

just like think about things. And um

uh so yeah, I I I do this a lot. This is

definitely a complaint I have about all the models is like, you know, even when you very specifically tell it not to try to do your work, it still often still tries to do your work. And so you have

to like really really be like, "No, I said no." Like I think actually if we

said no." Like I think actually if we look at um uh so here critical when Noah says he's just collecting source materials or I do not

under any circumstances [laughter] want you to try to write it. Take this

literally. Do not create outlines, drafts, or any versions of talkswriting.

Only gather and organize the requested materials.

It's so good. I love it.

Um, yeah, this is like uh but yeah, I think you know, I think we all we all experience that and you know, I mean, I I do hope over time that that sort of gets baked into the models. I think it's a very interesting tension that exists

with the model companies cuz like obviously you know like the sort of a lot of the economic input output is sort of measured in the artifacts that it produces. Um and so I think it's very

produces. Um and so I think it's very oriented and you know I I suspect that part of it is just like that sort of the helpful assistant thing has like come to be a sort of meme that is probably

self-injested.

Um, but yeah, it's it's um I think for those of us who are trying to do more interesting things with these models, it it becomes a real barrier to work.

Totally. Um, okay. So, I wanted to think about when you're using the thinking agent, did you say it like it's is it outputting some sort of summary of what you've come to into a particular place or?

Yeah. So that thinking agent is sort of told to as it ask me questions kind of make notes about the questions that it's asking me and keep a kind of running log of what I'm uncovering and how I'm thinking about it and all those sorts of

things.

Got it. And then you know you come back the next day and you're like oh I just want to go down this rabbit hole on XYZ thing about the you know this wild bill guy. Um and that you start in a new chat

guy. Um and that you start in a new chat maybe with it maybe with the subject maybe maybe not and that becomes its own new file on that topic.

Yeah. Exactly. So like I I this the um the Wild Bill stuff started as like deep research in Chad GBT um and I you know had it go out and I'm reading the Wild

Bill book right now. there's a like one sort of particularly famous biography of him and uh um you know I'm kind of thinking about the bits and pieces and trying to make and I I think I made a

kind of interesting connection in there um uh where you know a big part of what sort of he seems to have been after with the OSS and and you know the sort of

inspiration for the special forces was like empowering individuals um you know that's sort of like the theme of that manual was like obviously empower empowering citizen saboturs, but also,

you know, I think a big part of the special forces is like, you know, having kind of like incredible operators at the edge who, you know, obviously operate within a sort of command and control

hierarchy, but like have a ton of autonomy to move and execute independently because they're kind of they have all the things that they need.

And um so you know in all of that wild bill research I kind of went back to this and I was like is is this like an interesting way to connect all these ideas that like maybe kind of there's a you know and again I'm this is still

early I have not like solidified these conclusions this is like you know the regular kind of writing process right um but it's like well I think there's this idea that like you know fundamentally well I know you know fundamentally one

of the big things with transformers is it moved us from sequentialbased models to models that can act in, you know, sort of paralyzed their work better. And

that obviously allowed us to have much more powerful and, you know, interesting models and has, you know, arguably kicked off this entire sort of revolution of what's going on. Um, and

you know, what we both do for a living.

Uh, and so, you know, I think there's this kind of interesting connection. And

so that was what I was playing with. I

think here was like oh maybe there's this connection between kind of sequential processing to this kind of parallel and then there's this connection to bureaucracy and then there's this connection to wild bill who

seems to be have been very much about sort of like working within a system but like having autonomy at the edges and so that's kind of what I was playing with and just kind of taking notes and then yeah I would jump out and be like oh

well actually I haven't figured out a conclusion yet let me start the conclusion section and I'll just sort of get that going on the side but Um, and then, you know, I I have a job, so I can't be doing this all the time. So,

it's also like you interrupt yourself, and it's really nice to be able to come back and be like, you know, um, can you catch me up on the last three days of research?

Oo, I love that question. That's so

cool.

And so, yeah, you can just kind of go in and be like, can you catch me up on the last few days of research? And, um, it's just going to go read all the stuff, right? And again, it's like I think the

right? And again, it's like I think the point you made earlier about the, you know, go find relevant sources. It's

like I find a lot that the difference between the people are getting a lot of this right now is part of it is just like you have a good feel for where the edges of the capabilities of these models are and you sort of like

encourage them to work within those capabilities. Like this is an incredibly

capabilities. Like this is an incredibly easy, you know, it's like we know what it's going to do here, right? Like I

could write all these Unix commands.

It's just going to go find a bunch of files in this directory and it's going to look at them by date and it's going to look at all the files created in that project over the last you know and we know it's going to be able to do that.

And so it's saying um you know the major breakthrough day was this idea of bureaucracy as positional encoding which is very much a work in progress idea but I kind of like it. Um but you know so

it's just like it's pretty amazing also to just be able to kind of revisit deep work like this right where you know you know you're going to break your flow. um

you're not and it's like it's often you know I find whether it's code or writing the hardest part is like just picking it up again um because you're you're out of it and so just to kind of like kickstart

that process is sort of amazing um I think what I was playing with here is this idea that um bureaucracy was actually like an innovation right um that like we look at bureaucracy as a negative and generally we talk about it

as a negative and I think often it is a negative um but you know um bureaucr bureaucracy was a sort of like huge innovation for how companies operate, right? And ultimately it sort of

right? And ultimately it sort of represents kind of hierarchy and structure and a whole bunch of things that are like actually like pretty

positive for operating at a large scale.

Um and so um you know again my my kind of whole thesis on AI around all this bureaucracy stuff is that what's interesting about it is that um as opposed to kind of past technologies which kind of forced you to make a

decision about whether you wanted to kind of like use your existing sort of structure and build that technology into your existing structure or adopt the new structure. most of the

time the new software required you adopted the new structure and that's why so many sort of software projects failed for so long at least that's sort of part of what I think and um you know I think

part of what's interesting about AI what I find so interesting is like that you can kind of keep letting everybody work in whatever way they want you know it's like a classic problem inside large companies is like one team wants to use

a sauna and one wants to use jur and one wants to use linear right and so then at some point there's like a there's a there's a huge project and they bring in some big consulting firm and they decide they're going to all centralize on this

one thing and now twothirds of the company is unhappy um and like they've all made sacrifices and you know you're sort of in this like um very non ideal

state and I think what's really interesting about AI and I I this is a little more sort of theoretical because I think you know we're so early in this is that like I think it's very possible you could just say well everybody just

keep doing what we're you're doing we're going to stick sort of some models in the middle they don't care what you use because like it's all just data structures to them and so we can then have this sort of central thing and if

you know I when you we talked about percolate at the beginning perate was a content marketing platform worked with very large companies so it's a enterprise software product and it's like you know at the end of the day this is sort of the fundamental challenge of

enterprise software is about like you know adoption and change management and I just think I think and I hope and again this is sort of the the optimist

in me that like AI kind of lets us just not worry so much about these things and and rather than trying to make everybody change the ways that they work, kind of let them work in these ways and let AI

sort of it's my I I call it my Thomas's English muffin theory of AI, which is that it like gets into the nooks and crannies. Um, and so uh uh yeah, that's

crannies. Um, and so uh uh yeah, that's so anyway, but I have no idea what bureaucracy is positional encoding means yet. I'm hoping I figure it out in the

yet. I'm hoping I figure it out in the next two weeks before I have to give this talk. I think no, but I I think the

this talk. I think no, but I I think the point you just made is is totally right and it's actually not it doesn't have to be theoretical. Like I I've been seeing

be theoretical. Like I I've been seeing this too inside of every and I've been meaning to write about it and the the place that it's been coming up is we

have so inside of every we run like six different products. Um and we have 15

different products. Um and we have 15 people so it's it's like a crazy product to headcount ratio. Um and what's interesting is I really like doing things in a in a bottomup way. So

everyone each of the products has its own stack. We're not like centralized

own stack. We're not like centralized into a particular stack. Each you know GM that runs a product like just has made a decision about do I run rails or

TypeScript or whatever. And what I'm seeing happen which is very cool is um a lot of the different products are running into similar things they want to

solve for. So an easy example is um we

solve for. So an easy example is um we have one product called Sparkle which is a little bit like a um uh a finder replacement or spotlight replacement. So it it it organizes your

replacement. So it it it organizes your files and then it implements really fast spotlight search.

I'm a user. I like it.

Okay. So then you you know um and uh so that's really cool. And uh Agentic Search coming soon. Uh check it out. And

uh and we're just building a new product, new GM, new stack uh called parah, which is essentially an in-house council. So it's short for parallegal,

council. So it's short for parallegal, not par like you know, Thiagoforte Parah. Um and uh the whole job for PAR

Parah. Um and uh the whole job for PAR is just, you know, take all of your legal files and whenever I have a question and be like, okay, did do we ever sign this contract or what's the employee agreement template or whatever?

it just gives you the answer and it's just clawed code sitting on top of a directory. Um,

directory. Um, and and a thing that we needed to implement for that is uh this sort of like fast file file search. And what's

really interesting is historically if we wanted to reuse the stuff that we learned from implementing sparkles file search that would have to be abstracted

out into this modular library that anyone can use and then we have to be on the same platform and like that all those things right and [snorts] what we did instead is we just added uh piti

who's the developer for for for par right now we just added her to the sparkle repo and I was just like just ask cloud code to figure out how it works and just do your own version. Um,

and so you get this like sort of tacit code sharing where we all get better but without having to do the work of uh abstracting and modularizing everything because the the percentage of things

that you can do that for are pretty low because it's a it's a heavy lift. And

I'm seeing that happen all the time where just having a bunch of repos that are all solving similar problems but in different environments in different ways you everyone gets more productive

because AI can kind of translate.

I've uh one thing we've done there uh we also we so at le uh very large brands um and so we sort

of build all kinds of AI things and um you know so we we've got lots of sort of internal and external repos and we frequently have the same thing and actually I've used the GitHub MCP um a

few times for that same purpose which is just like um you know you're just in cursor or cloud code or whatever and you're like hey can you go like look up uh we run we've got an internal tool um

called intelligence that just sort of is a wrapper around a whole bunch of like stuff that we use right so it's like got some CRM stuff and it's just like been a fun place to build the things that we

need to run our company um but it's also a good place to kind of experiment and explore and figure out solutions to interesting problems and so I'll frequently be like oh can you go like just go look at the intelligence repo

and um you know, look at how I implemented that thing there and take those sort of best practices and just pull them over. Um, and yeah, I think

that stuff again, that's where I really do believe in this idea. I like one of my whenever we have like a client meeting or something, my first the

question, the icebreaker I always use is what was your aha moment with AI? And um

uh mine was uh uh I mean it was probably not the very first but it's the one that sort of I think was most impactful was I was uh I got access to build a chat GPD

plugin. Remember when plugins came out

plugin. Remember when plugins came out like uh two and a half years ago or something now?

You mean 50 years ago? [laughter]

50 years ago the the um uh and you know I I like you. I've I've written a lot of software in my life and I you know you know what you do when you like get

access to something new. It's like I got to go read the API docs and figure it out and you know like there's a going to be a contract and you know as long as you follow that contract it works. And I

go read the plug-in spec and it basically is like oh you just stick a manifest.json JSON file in the root

manifest.json JSON file in the root directory of your application and in that you describe how you want us to send you data and you describe how you're going to send it back to us and then we'll deal with the rest. And I was

just like that's amazing. It's also like it it's how the world should work. Like

I wish everything worked that way. I

wish I didn't always have to adhere to the big company's contract for how to send and receive data. Um, but also like I the thing that really struck me in that moment and it's like been my kind

of like rallying cry around all this stuff is that um it's also just like fundamentally counterintuitive in that like I literally have a career's worth of intuition for how to integrate

software systems and it flipped it on its head like like quite literally 180 degrees away from my intuition of how software systems should be integrated

was this thing and that I think since then has been My kind of thing for everybody has been like this is just not intuitive for now and and that's not a

bad thing. It just means like you need

bad thing. It just means like you need to build intuition and like that's what we're all just out there trying to do with it, right? And so you know when I don't know I mean part of what I like about what you're doing and you know

even just hearing the things you're saying but like generally what you do with the podcast and what you do with every is like so much of it is like we're all kind of just figuring stuff out for the first time, right? And like

um you know we're like oh will this work? And then like all of a sudden you

work? And then like all of a sudden you have this new bit of intuition for what these things can do and what a computer that is not deterministic looks like.

And um that's I think that's just what we're all doing all the time. And that's

why it's so fun. I think

that's why I love this moment cuz like you just have a weird idea and you're like has anyone done this before? And

and it's like no. And [laughter] it's not a it's not a complicated idea. It's

just it's just a new whole new territory, you know.

I Yes. I I think about that all the time. And I think actually like I think

time. And I think actually like I think one of the really damaging sort of things out there is that um I think there are a lot of people who think we're way further along in this than we

are. And so, you know, I think

are. And so, you know, I think particularly the people who are sort of scared, you know, we run we work with like Fortune 50 companies. And so, you know, when

50 companies. And so, you know, when we're sort of like out there and we're talking to people inside the organization, a lot of people feel like they've already been left behind and it's like, no, you could like literally

go sign into chat GBT and like do something like nobody's thought about doing with this thing yet because there's just so much white space to

explore and and you might discover some totally new way of using it and or like totally new trick and um I don't know, that's just that's and you know, I think to be fair to some people that's sort of

very intimidating and I don't think by and large the models do any favors to themselves in helping those people get their feet wet in that like you know I think people go on there and they you know it's like you ask it to write you a

poem and then it writes you a poem and you're like okay it wrote me a poem um but uh I don't know that feeling of like that feeling of yeah being it's like

being on the frontier right totally and yeah I think that um your point about intuitions and getting intuitions is the big thing. And I think people what we don't realize is when

you're dealing with something fundamentally new. You you can't trust

fundamentally new. You you can't trust like how you reason about it without experiencing it because you have to build the intuition in order to be able to reason about what it means and and how it fits in and whether it works or

not. And we're just not used to that cuz

not. And we're just not used to that cuz we're used to reasoning about things we already have an intuition for. And um

and I think that's why like when you first see maybe when you first saw JBT you' be like, "Oh my god, it can do everything." like we're not going to

everything." like we're not going to have jobs in a year. And now we're like 3 years in and we're like, "Yeah, it's awesome." And jobs are complicated.

awesome." And jobs are complicated.

There's a lot of complex stuff that we do, you know? Um, and I I love I love kind of that, you know, in order to build the intuition, all you have to do

is is use it. And that just by using it, you're already kind of on the edge uh for now. And yeah, I think that's the

for now. And yeah, I think that's the best.

There's apparently there's a a German word called finger spitzen geuel. of

course there is building fingertip feeling and that's been my um uh just because I can't resist also um I I I'm in that whole in

in sort of the realm that you're discussing like uh I've been trying to do a lot of analogy analogizing right it's sort of like and I think you know that's really hard and um uh you know

but my two that have sort of stuck the most one is just um I watch a lot of YouTube with my kids and um Uh, we watch this channel called Veritassium. It's a

science channel and I love Veritassium.

Yeah, it's great. Um, and he did one where he built a bike that locks out left if you try to turn right and locks out right if you try to turn left. And

what he's proving is that you can't actually turn a bike left unless you can turn it right. Um, which none of us would think about when we ride a bike because it's all just second nature and

intuition. But it's also why you can't

intuition. But it's also why you can't explain to a child how to ride a bike.

um they just have to get on it and feel it and um and so you know I really that video is amazing and um uh it's uh that channel is amazing and and but I I've thought a lot about that and then the

other one which is a sort of deeper cut is um uh there's an amazing book about quantum physics called beyond weird um by Philip Ball and um the thesis of the

book is basically that like there's nothing particularly strange about quantum physics that we like we have a very good understanding of it like we wouldn't be talking right now. We

wouldn't be on computers. We wouldn't

have phones if we didn't have like a very good grasp of the mechanics that exist underneath it. And his thesis in the book essentially is that like what's really lacking is the vocabulary because

like we all exist in a Newtonian world, not in a quantum one. And so we all have words that reflect the sort of deterministic processes of that macro

universe. And I think a lot about that.

universe. And I think a lot about that.

I have not like fully been able to sort of pull that string all the way to AI, but I feel like there's a real connection there because I think that there's just something really weird about using probabilistic computers.

Like we're not used to using things that like you ask them the same question twice and they have different answers.

Like that's very strange. We're not used to I'm not used to writing code where you can tell the larger company how you want them to send you data and they can

just do it. like these are not normal things that any of us have lived with in our lifetimes and so of course it takes some time for us to adjust.

I think so too and I actually have a hope that language models by becoming a standard way that we use computers will

create that vocabulary. Um because we actually are quite good at dealing with probabilistic nondeterministic things like other humans. Um we've just grown

up in a world where because of you know the enlightenment and the scientific revolution and and the tools that came out of that are very much like deterministic we've associated

that with uh how we see like that's how we see the world because of those tools and that language and uh there's a whole other part of the way that we see the world which is much more squishy and

much more like vibes based that has been um I think de deprioritized uh especially in western culture that now that we have a tool that works that way, I think we'll be able to start seeing

that again. And that's one of the

that again. And that's one of the beautiful things to me about language models is it opens up that whole world again.

Yes, I love it. Um

I do want to go back to cla code uh and we should do the phone unless there's unless there are other things that you uh that that you want to share on the computer. Um, but the the the thing I

computer. Um, but the the the thing I want to do before we get there that's just on my mind right now is like you said you said you know you watch this with your kids and I'm sort of curious

how like what do your kids think about this and how are you dealing with it with your kids? Um

yeah. Um I love that question. Uh so uh I've got a seven and a 10-year-old. Um

and obviously like I'm pretty kind of deeply embedded in this stuff and so I've sort of exposed them quite a bit to it. um uh you know they don't uh so they

it. um uh you know they don't uh so they will like occasionally use the sort of voice models and they have a pretty good understanding and we'll be in the car and just play games and ask questions with Grock and do those kinds of things.

Um this weekend actually for the first time my 10-year-old um uh she was really

eager to be every year um uh my wife and her sister and brother and mom and and all the cousins and we all get together and we do Christmas together and so it's too many presents to give to everybody.

So we do a kind of like not secret secret Santa where everybody chooses one person and my 10-year-old really wanted to be the one who got to be the chooser.

Um, and uh, I encouraged her to uh, vibe code an app to do it. Um, and so I just gave her my phone and Vzero. And um,

honestly that was like so amazing to watch. Like not just cuz it was so cool

watch. Like not just cuz it was so cool to see her do that and build it. And she

went through she was having so much fun.

She did 75 revs on Vzero. Um, uh, so she like really got it going.

Polished Santa app. uh

uh she also like started to get into like really interesting kind of like computer science ideas without knowing it. So in

one of the things like the adults give presents to adults and the kids give presents to kids but she wanted this to be a more generalized app. So she

realized that like rather than having adults and kids, you need to call them groups, right? And like you know, so

groups, right? And like you know, so she's like getting into data modeling and like all of this I'm like watching this conversation happen and um I just

thought that was so awesome. Um, and you know, also just like a real pet peeve of mine right now and I've I've sort of gotten this argument with a bunch of people is like there seems to be a big conversation that like there's a a

bubble in vibe coding and like because one company or another might have too high of a valuation. And my take on that is like I just I I could not care less what the valuations of these companies

are. I think like fundamentally if

are. I think like fundamentally if there's a tool that could allow a 10-year-old to like build an app, there can't that can't be a bubble. like I I just like can't see a possibility where

that is that. So, um anyway, that's sort of one side of it. The other big one for me that I've been thinking a lot about is um uh is sort of media literacy and

education um stuff. So, um you know, both at the sort of schools they go to um and then also I went to NYU and I've sort of um been having more and more

conversations with the dean of the school I went to there. Um and uh um there's a lot of fear inside schools right now about AI and about cheating

and [snorts] um there's a big thing you know so some parents in my town they you know they wanted to have more of a conversation about it and um you know as

someone who I I've thought about this a lot but I've also just like been I've spent my entire life thinking about sort of technology and its effects on culture and I I think I' I'm like relatively grounded in these things. of of like

I've put in good hours of thinking. I I

know that for sure. Um and so, you know, my my take on it is like one that sort of you can't hide technology that won't be hidden, right? So, it's like, you know, putting our head in the sand is

not the best solution. And then, you know, my bigger one though is like I I was out um a friend of mine asked me to come um talk to a school two years ago

about AI um out in LA. And um afterwards I was talking to a English teacher there and she was like what do I do like what do I do about all these kids you know using AI and I was like look I don't

really know what your job is because like I mean being an English teacher for 11th graders sounds really much harder than my job. Um but on a really fundamental level like I don't actually

think your job is to teach these kids to write because that's like a lifelong pursuit. I think your job is to convince

pursuit. I think your job is to convince them that it's worth learning to write.

And so in that way like I I'm not sure that anything fundamentally changes because of AI like I I think that you know and again this is my very optimistic take but like I am I think

that there are so many parts of the education system that AI really just exposes the sort of flaws in the way that we teach like why are there so many tests on these kinds of things instead

of encouraging thinking and learning and coming to love to write and research and whatever you know it's like we're so focused on teaching kids the you know five paragraph essay you know while

every adult who is a writer has long abandoned that and because like it's all about sort of discovering that you like to write and you you know what your own style is and how to do it and you know

it's like I'm sure it's like you know a big part of working with AI to write is like telling it is ignoring it because you're like no that's not me I'm not into that like I like I I I'm totally

comfortable saying really here. I know

you don't think it's a good idea, but like I'm I'm cool with it. Um, and so, you know, I don't know. I I've been sort of having a lot of these different thoughts. I'm actually pitching a class

thoughts. I'm actually pitching a class for the fall of 26 at NYU to kind of um the idea for it is uh code is essay. And

my my sort of point of view is like this sort of opens up this new way to express yourself. Um, and that you know like we

yourself. Um, and that you know like we have all these other ways that we celebrate to express ourselves but code has been like long shut off from people because it's but actually it's kind of amazing and it lets you express yourself

in all these different kinds of ways and like you know this is what my 10-year-old was doing this weekend. So

anyway, those are all the bits and pieces as a parent I've been thinking about. The one other thing I will plug

about. The one other thing I will plug is um media literacy I think is a big piece of it. A lot of people are afraid of these models and hallucinations and

um there's a book um by a guy named Tim Harford who writes for uh the FT and he's an economist um and he has a book called The Truth Detective which is an adaptation of the data detective but

it's written for kids and it's the best media literacy book I've ever read for adults or for children. Um, and I think, you know, a lot of what this AI

conversation exposes is like how bad a job we do with helping and arming our kids and our adults to be sort of like

truly media and technology literate.

And, you know, like being really good at knowing what's real on social media turns out to be also really useful for like differentiating between hallucinations and non-h hallucinations

in chat GBD, right? like this is a sort of to me a kind of very central skill that like we need to arm everybody with and um I am sort of way more interested

in that with my kids than I am in worrying about them cheap. That was a very long answer to your question. I

don't know if it got at what you were looking for.

No, it's amazing. I that's exactly what I'm looking for. And it sort of what it strikes me another way to frame what

you're saying is for example rather than learn having them memorize and be quizzed on the 50 what the 50 states are uh

asking them to go find the 50 states with CHBT and be able to tell when the AI is giving them the wrong answer because that's a lot more of the the meta skill that they're going to need

anyway down the down the line. And

again, I'm not a teacher. I'm sure

there's lots of teachers who were like, "This is that's crazy for a lot of probably good reasons, but there's something interesting there where it becomes the meta skills become more important than they used to be." And in

order to do well at the meta skill, you have to also be able to like to some degree do the underlying skill, too.

But, um, we probably could be spending a much more time in the medical school than we are now. And the education system like isn't really set up to do that anyway.

Yeah. Yeah. And I I you know even I think even simpler examples is like I I went to a school called Gallatton at NYU and and um when you graduate you have to sort of it's not quite a thesis defense

but you have to sort of spend three hours with four professors and and or three professors and sort of explain kind of your line of reasoning around why you studied what you studied. and

you need to be prepared to kind of like weave into that defense um uh any of 25 books that you put on your book list. Um

and you know I was talking to them and it's like amazing that's like entirely AI proof, right? Like there's no cheating on that. Like you show up in that room and you're either prepared to speak to it or you're not. And whether

you're prepared with AI or not is uh it doesn't mean anything, right? Like it's

it's like like do you can you can you make a an argument in this room and like not everything is going to be that easy to be sort of like cut off but like I don't know there's something really

beautiful about that idea right because it's like it's naturally cheating proof because like you're sitting there and and it's a question of like did you

actually internalize these things? Um,

and I don't know, that's way more interesting to me than even like was your essay good or any of these other it's like did you did you get it? Like

[laughter] um and uh so yeah, I don't know. Um, I'm

I'm I I I'm trying to do my best to kind of like um take a balanced approach and um try to at least sort of like tamp down some of I I live in a small town in

Connecticut and you know, I think there's a lot of fear amongst parents.

You know, it's like it was mobile phones and then it was social media, now it's AI and it's like another thing that's going to ruin our kids. And um I don't think that that is true. Um uh but I

think there are things we can and should do to encourage it to not be true. Like

really get them really good at the things you're saying. Like how do you tell? And again, it's like a

tell? And again, it's like a hallucination is just a form of the same kind of misinformation that exists in on television and on the internet and in social media and everywhere else. And um

you know just sort of like encouraging people to kind of get in touch. There's

a great part of the truth detective um for the kids book. He he calls it the brain guard. And like one of the bits of

brain guard. And like one of the bits of advice he has is when you encounter some piece of information, if it makes you feel really good because you agree with it, then you should be even more skeptical of it. And he calls it the brain guard, you know? And he's

explaining this like this is for a 9-year-old. I just thought that was like

9-year-old. I just thought that was like such a beautiful way to put it, right?

Like that's like what that's what you learn to do when you get good at being on the internet. Um is that you're like, "Wait, I should like be more skeptical of this because this is like in line

with everything I think. let me just doublech check the [snorts] way like I I you know, you get to learn that feeling in your gut and get to learn when to react to it. And so, yeah, that's a lot

of how I think about it.

That's great. I'm I'm interested. I'm

going to get I'm going to get that book.

I'm I'm interested in reading it.

You should. My plan is to read it to my kids every year u from now on.

Nice. I love it.

Just refresh it.

Um All right. Now, for the moment we've all been waiting for. show us how you use cloud code on your phone as a second brain notetaker.

Okay, so here we go. So I am going into an app called Terus.

Termas is just a terminal.

Um, and uh, what is allowing all this to happen behind the scenes is in my basement I have a mini PC and on that

mini PC I have a thing called tail scale running and tail scale lets you set up these very simple VPNs. So I'm currently

inside like if I scroll down here you see I'm on a VPN. That's my personal VPN. I'm not like on an outside VPN. I

VPN. I'm not like on an outside VPN. I

see. Um, so the only way to access this machine is through my VPN.

Okay.

Um, and so then when I go in there, um, because I sync my Obsidian, um, with, uh, Git, so I put it, it's on

GitHub, uh, in a private GitHub. Um, I

can then sync it back down to here. And

so then I can just call up Claude.

And now I'm just in Claude Code talking and thinking and I can just be like, um,

what's new in the last two days?

Um, I can access any of my agents. Um, I

can do anything. And again, this is in my Obsidian, but I can use this anywhere, right? So, I'll be like on the

anywhere, right? So, I'll be like on the fly. I've got other repos in here. Um,

fly. I've got other repos in here. Um,

you know, I I realized like a link was broken on my conference site and so I uh um I just uh opened the repo. I pulled

it down. I asked Quad Code to make the changes and I was able to do it right here. Um, so this has been like

here. Um, so this has been like completely wild to me because again, this is very much in that like like on Tuesday of this week, um, we had Monday

off, Tuesday, I dropped the I dropped the kids off the bus and then I, uh, I went and I sat and had breakfast and I literally sat on my phone and worked on this talk for like two hours. Um, and I

did it through here, right? like on my phone where I was like doing real thinking and research and pulling things in and pasting things in and doing all this kind of stuff and you know I'm able

to do it all and it it just it doesn't seem like I could do that kind of thing without that. So yeah, this has been

without that. So yeah, this has been like a completely revolutionary change in my life. Um, and uh, actually one of the things I've been doing lately is like setting up I've got all these

friends now who have set up um, like little partitions of this mini PC in my basement um, so that they can also run Cloud Code on their phone because um, I like it so much.

Do does this make you be like, "Oh my god, I got to drop everything and just build a actual purpose-built notes app that has Cloud Code as a back end for this?"

this?" No. Oh, I mean actually one of the

No. Oh, I mean actually one of the things I've been thinking a lot is like maybe I just like everything should just run in Linux all the time for me. Maybe

this is like at least for the short term this is the answer to all of what I just need to like not have anything anywhere else. Um, no. I mean I'm I'm I I will

else. Um, no. I mean I'm I'm I I will say I'm I'm sort of pretty out of the SAS game these days. So I don't often kind of think that I should drop everything and and do anything. I find

this to be a really amazing solution. Um

and uh um but no, I mean I this but this has really this has really like changed the way I work and I feel like I can just be anywhere and just be on my phone

and um you know I mean I was out like uh I needed a break. Uh it was you know 4:30. I went and sat outside for a while

4:30. I went and sat outside for a while and then um we had a project that needed to get delivered to a client and a small change needed to be made that like I was the best suited to make that change. Um,

and so I just like hopped on my phone. I

pulled the repo down and I um went into cloud code. It's like a tiny little

cloud code. It's like a tiny little change. You know, like the way I find

change. You know, like the way I find myself using cloud code the most for code is that like mostly I'm having it do the work I already know how to do.

You know, I'm like, oh, I like I know exa I knew exactly what was going on in that situation. Um, like I knew why we

that situation. Um, like I knew why we were having the issue we were having.

And so it was like I could have gone back to my computer and opened up uh cursor and done it in cursor either by hand or with cursor, but it was like I just I was like I told cloud code

exactly where to look. It was like and I first confirmed that the problem was what I thought the problem was and then I just had it push a solution and it pushed a PR and then I was done.

Amazing.

And I was still sitting outside by the pond. [laughter]

pond. [laughter] I love that. Um yeah, I've I've definitely had that experience. I've

never I've not done it on my phone. I'm

like I have my laptop out with me, you know, by the pond or by a lake or whatever, but you're inspiring me. I

have a Mac Mini in the office that I've been meaning to set up. So, I think this is going to give me one of the other, by the way, um one of my other I'll just take you out of here for one sec actually, just to show you

this. One of my other big ahas um

this. One of my other big ahas um recently has been um

uh building um clawed code helpers for um doing uh uh basically like uh setup work. So it's like I'm not I'm

like been playing with Linux lately. I'm

playing with this Omari which is DHH's Linux distribution and I'm not like super comfortable in here. And so I got this whole this is a cloud code project

specifically to help me configure this box and it's like so nice because I'm like oh how do you do this in Linux again or like what's the Neo Vim command or like can you change this can you help

me install this plugin for Neo or whatever it is or and so now I have one on my Mac too where it's like um can you clean up all the homebrew things or like I switched from like which Python package manager I was using and it was

like that would have been super overwhelming for me and I was like I want to switch from using pip to using UV. Can you like just make that happen?

UV. Can you like just make that happen?

And it like just did all this stuff for me. And it knows all my preferred

me. And it knows all my preferred settings. And so, um, I actually have a

settings. And so, um, I actually have a version of this where like now I've got it so tuned that, um, if I want to launch a new box for doing something, it'll just have all my settings ready to

go and then I can log into Claude Code and the Claude Code can then set up anything else that didn't get set up in the initial process.

That is amazing. That's wild.

Um, this is my happy place.

I I can see that. Are do you have any like um uh are there are there any big projects like this that you've been itching to do or itching to try out?

Uh no, not really. I mean, I've been having a ton of fun that my my server stuff has been a ton of fun. I've been

doing a lot of that. Um I'm uh I'm I mean like I said I mean this is kind of a joke and kind of not is like I'm super interested in um like doing more I because Cloud Code has become such a

sort of integral part of my life like I'm very interested in the command line.

I found myself installing more and more things into the command line um and like doing more and more work. I've been

using like uh um Simon Wilson has a LLM command line tool and like doing more and more stuff sort of in that and then like also layering that back into cloud

code. So it's like I did my newest cloud

code. So it's like I did my newest cloud code little Obsidian tool is it I have an attachments folder in Obsidian where all the PDFs and images and stuff in any

note go but inevitably they have terrible names, right? I mean, um, and so this goes through very similar to, um, uh, sparkle and but just in that

Obsidian folder and it it renames them all and then it also puts them in like a metadata. It puts them in a table in the

metadata. It puts them in a table in the attachments folder and then it renames all the attachment links back. So it

just like cleans everything up. It just

does it through Gemini Flash. Um, and so it's like I don't know, stuff like that's kind of amazing. Um, so I don't I'm just like I'm having the time of my life just building and tinkering and you

know I mean this is just on the side and I get to do the same thing. I mean we work with like Amazon and Meta and PayPal and all these big companies and you know we're just like building amazing stuff all the time.

I love that. I love the energy. If

people are interested in uh following you or working with you uh where should they find you?

Yeah. Um, so Alfic is alle.com. A l e p h i c.com.

Um, and then I also run this thing called brand b rxn d.ai to make it particularly confusing. Um, that's a

particularly confusing. Um, that's a conference. We've got the conference

conference. We've got the conference coming up on September 18th in New York City. You should come if you're around.

City. You should come if you're around.

It'll be really fun. We're going to talk about marketing and AI. Um, and I also write a newsletter there at newsletter.brnd.ai

newsletter.brnd.ai about sort of specifically at this intersection of AI and marketing. Um,

those are kind of the best places to find me these days.

Awesome, Noah. Always a pleasure.

Pleasure is all mine. Thank you, Dan.

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