“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
| Tempo | HIGH (7 timed events, ~14.0h scheduled) |
| Conditions | Wife and kids in NY · Hotel: BW Niceville Destin · Sleep (H) · JMEM Methodology Course · Sleep (H) |
| Family | Wife and kids in NY |
| 6:30am | Life Logistics block (gap fill) |
| 9:00am | Army AM block (W) |
| 1:00pm | Army PM Workblock (W) |
| 4:30pm | Work Block (W) |
| 7:00pm | Rifath Rashid and Zach Zayac |
| 8:00pm | JHU Office Hours |
| 9:00pm | JHU systems meeting |
Training is the slow, expensive phase where a model learns by adjusting its weights over enormous amounts of data, often using many machines for days or weeks. Inference is the cheap, fast phase where the already-trained model is just used to answer a question or make a prediction. Think of training as years of schooling and inference as answering a single question on the spot. Once trained, the weights are frozen, so the model does not learn from your individual chat unless someone deliberately retrains it. This split is why running a model locally can be quick even though creating it required a data center. It also explains why fixing a model's mistake usually means retraining or adding guardrails, not editing it live.
Honey never goes bad. People have found honey in 3,000-year-old Egyptian tombs that was still good to eat.
Set up a pretend restaurant: kids write a menu and take your order.
How: Kids fold paper for menus: 3-4 dishes with prices, they draw the food. Set a table, you're the customer; they take the order on a notepad, 'cook' (toys or real snacks), serve, and bring the bill. Pay in coins so they make change.
No family or awareness events on the calendar for the next seven days.
No entry captured yesterday. Record one today and it reads back tomorrow.
Who helped you recently, and have you thanked them?
Yes, I'll act on today's prompt Not today
Today's good thing
(write your good thing here — the recorder photographs this block tonight)
Needs a reply
—
Worth a look
Productivity Game Academy [email protected] — New Podcast Episode: The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
[email protected] — Budget Rental Confirmation: 234563136
Boardy Boardman [email protected] — Open to coaching a wellness-tech founder?
Boardy Boardman [email protected] — Open to a fundraising-prep referral partner for your founder coaching work?
Zayac, Zachary A CW2 USARMY 1 MDTF (USA) [email protected] — FW: TICKET/INVOICE ISSUED – RETAIN FOR VOUCHER – for ZAYAC/ZACHARY on 07/12/26 2X4FS7
Michael Nauta [email protected] — EN.645.601 – Team Project Kickoff (Part 1 Planning)
matthew vavalle [email protected] — Re: QLCA Camp Week 2 and 3 The fun continues!
Huberman Lab Premium [email protected] — A new discussion just opened in the Huberman Lab Premium community
Jay Keller [email protected] — Driving help needed
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts [email protected] — ALERT: Your Franchise Tax Account is Not Current
Productivity Game Academy [email protected] — New Podcast Episode: The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
Verizon Wireless [email protected] — Your Verizon bill is ready.
Performance Coach University [email protected] — LIVE NOW: PCU Live Training event was updated in Performance Coach Certification
[email protected] — [sis-bill-notification] JHU Monthly eBill Broadcast
WHOOP [email protected] — Shop NEW accessories & apparel ⭐️
FYI — be aware
Grammarly [email protected] — Get 50% off Grammarly Pro
Beau Norton [email protected] — 24 hours left
EN.645.662.81.SU26 Introduction to Systems Engineering [email protected] — INCOSE Academic Equivalency (AE) Certification Process: EN.645.662.81.SU26 Introduction to Systems Engineering
Amazon.com [email protected] — Shop breathable summer bedding
Withings [email protected] — BodyScan 2: coming soon
Instagram [email protected] — annizzzle and 7 others recently added to their stories
Beau Norton [email protected] — top 1% creators are masters at this
Google Calendar [email protected] — Notification: Zingage @ Sun Jul 12, 2026 2pm - 3pm (PDT) ([email protected])
Amazon.com [email protected] — We found something you might like
Google Calendar [email protected] — Notification: Jon K @ Sun Jul 12, 2026 1pm - 2pm (PDT) ([email protected])
Discord [email protected] — You missed messages in Ominous Industries
Jotform [email protected] — Re: Jonathan Pre-Session Form
MSP Airport [email protected] — ⚽️ Don't miss a goal!
Shortform [email protected] — 📚 Read guides to: 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, The Octopus Organization, The Power Elite
MSP Airport [email protected] — 4 out of 5 travelers say this made their trip better ✈️
Google Calendar [email protected] — Notification: 🆓 📨 Morning Catch Up @ Sun Jul 12, 2026 7am - 7:25am (PDT) ([email protected])
GitHub [email protected] — [GitHub] You have used 100% of the Actions minutes included for the zzayac5 account
GitHub [email protected] — [GitHub] You have used 90% of the Actions minutes included for the zzayac5 account
Amazon.com [email protected] — You received 90 days FREE with your purchase
GoDaddy [email protected] — Your July account summary is ready for review! Stay up to date.
Supabase [email protected] — Supa Update July 2026
Amazon.com [email protected] — You received 90 days FREE with your purchase
Grammarly [email protected] — 50% off Pro — stronger drafts, faster
The Substack Post [email protected] — “I had become haunted by the simplest question: What did I care about?”
AI2Z-Targo [email protected] — [zzayac5/Witan] PR run failed: ops-tests - feat(rtr45): doc-drift nightly sweep — the substrate half of the file-assessor (shadow-first) (5b96db9)
LinkedIn [email protected] — 46 profile views
The Substack Post [email protected] — “I had become haunted by the simplest question: What did I care about?”
Matt Verlaque [email protected] — Why nothing important got done this week
Arena Magazine [email protected] — Anduril's Trae Stephens on Rebuilding the American Arsenal
Acorns [email protected] — Your monthly statement is available
Make [email protected] — 🛑 Encountered error in HTTP Unsubscribe One-Click GET scenario
Amazon.com [email protected] — Book recommendations for Zachary
CAMP [email protected] — We Miss You! Come Back for More CAMP Magic ✨
Origin Financial [email protected] — there, your Weekly Recap is ready.
Credit Karma [email protected] — See your updated credit score inside.
Instagram [email protected] — leannerosephotography and jade_alexiss recently added to their stories
Tim Ferriss [email protected] — 5-Bullet Friday — Cutting Your Puppet Strings, Mind-Bending Songs, and Great Audiobooks
LinkedIn [email protected] — Google is hiring a Technical Program Manager, AI Enablement
NetworkChuck Academy [email protected] — New Summer of CCNA Content is Live!
Amazon.com [email protected] — Today’s deals, picked for you
Productboard [email protected] — GPT-5.6 ships, Claude goes everywhere, and a workforce split in two | The Context Window 7.10
Productboard [email protected] — GPT-5.6 ships, Claude goes everywhere, and a workforce split in two | The Context Window 7.10
OpenAI [email protected] — GPT-5.6: Meet Sol, Terra and Luna
Claude Team [email protected] — Let Cowork do something real for you
Amazon.com Reviews [email protected] — Zachary, did 'BELLEMOND Paper Screen Protector' meet your expectations? Review it on Amazon
Costco Anywhere Visa® Card [email protected] — Don't forget about your $102.77 Costco credit card reward certificate
The Batch @ DeepLearning.AI [email protected] — Restoration of Claude Fable 5, Gemini's Video Dev Engine, DeepSeek Speeds Up Speculative Decoding
Startup School [email protected] — [Startup School] Reminder to submit your weekly update!
Discord [email protected] — You missed messages in Ominous Industries
Mirbeau [email protected] — There's Something Special About Mirbeau Plymouth
Paperbell (Laura) [email protected] — next thurs
The DataCamp Team [email protected] — Learn Polars for free on DataCamp
Audible [email protected] — Hundreds of titles, up to 80% off!
The DataCamp Team [email protected] — Learn Polars for free on DataCamp
Men's Wearhouse [email protected] — Obsessed with Your New Look? Let Us Know What You Think!
Arena Magazine [email protected] — The Most Fragile Cargo In the World
CAMP [email protected] — Did someone say “Magic Door”?
ecobee [email protected] — Service reminder: It’s time for an air filter change.
ecobee [email protected] — Service reminder: time to inspect your HVAC system.
Udemy Instructor: Transformation Services [email protected] — How to Build a Flexible Coaching Career
All In Podcast LLC [email protected] — Earn Your Seat In The Room | All-In Summit Scholarship Program
Pascal [email protected] — Steal the hours nobody owns
JHU Canvas [email protected] — Recent Canvas Notifications
The Pod Company [email protected] — Summer heat = your best sauna session ever 🔥
Fathom [email protected] — The Orbit Report | See What's Possible With MCP
The DataCamp Team [email protected] — Agents can run the analysis. What do you do now?
USAA [email protected] — You Have a New USAA Document
Ollama [email protected] — All Aboard Open Models - Ollama Raises $65M to Accelerate Open Models
Mosh Hamedani [email protected] — What 3 months with Claude Code taught me
Apple [email protected] — Your receipt from Apple.
The DataCamp Team [email protected] — Agents can run the analysis. What do you do now?
ecobee [email protected] — Exclusive offer: Take an additional $45 off our Smart Doorbell Camera with Smart Security
A.C. Aponte via LinkedIn [email protected] — A.C. just messaged you
Team Tailscale [email protected] — Who will you meet at TailscaleUp?
Artlist [email protected] — What's inspiring creators this week
Discord [email protected] — You missed messages in Ominous Industries
Team Vapi [email protected] — Vapi x Anthropic: voice meets frontier intelligence
[email protected] — Your TSP Account Statement is Available
Shane Rockett and Abby Carr from First Breakfast [email protected] — Winning Below the Waterline
Mendi [email protected] — One device for all
HBS Executive Education [email protected] — Leadership Insights
Amazon Business [email protected] — Save up to 11% on PC and tech essentials
AI2Z-Targo [email protected] — [zzayac5/Witan] Run failed: ops-tests - main (e9217ae)
Beau Norton [email protected] — You're only 90 days away
AI2Z-Targo [email protected] — [zzayac5/Witan] PR run failed: ops-tests - ci: reporting-only GitHub Action running the ops pytest suite on every PR (26dc8b2)
J.1 — [DRAFT] (spicy 55 · novel 60 · attention 78)
A government just restricted access to frontier AI models for foreign nationals this week.
Set the politics aside. The lesson is older than the news: if your core capability lives on a model someone else can switch off, you don't own it — you're renting it, and the landlord just showed you the eviction clause.
I spend my nights running my actual life on ~100 small AI models on hardware in my house. People ask why not just call the best cloud model. This is why. Sovereignty isn't a feature you bolt on later; it's a decision you make before you're dependent.
Rent capability when the stakes are low. Own it when they're not.
J.2 — [DRAFT] (spicy 63 · novel 80 · attention 74)
Everyone's racing to the biggest model. I'm quietly betting the other direction.
Let the expensive model work the live problem AND produce gold-standard examples as a byproduct. A small local model trains on those examples in the background, from day one. Over time the small one handles the routine 80%, and the expensive one is reserved for the genuinely hard tail.
You don't have to choose between capability today and ownership tomorrow. Run both — let the big one teach the small one while it earns its keep. The dataset compounds whether you're watching or not.
J.3 — [DRAFT] (spicy 40 · novel 64 · attention 72)
I gave the AI that runs my calendar, my to-dos, and my mornings one non-negotiable rule: show your work.
Every step it takes, every piece of data it read, which machine it ran on — visible and auditable. Not because I don't trust it. Because trust you can't inspect isn't trust, it's hope.
The industry is sprinting toward bigger, more capable, more opaque. I'll take watchable over brilliant every time something has write access to my real life. A glass box you can correct beats a black box you have to pray over.
J.4 — [DRAFT] (spicy 30 · novel 58 · attention 70)
Twelve years in uniform taught me a good order states the intent, not the steps.
'Hold the bridge until the column passes' beats a list of positions — because the moment reality changes, and it always does, everyone still knows what winning looks like.
I'm relearning it building with AI agents. The instinct is to script every step. But the agents that actually help are the ones I give intent and constraints, then let improvise. The ones I micromanage break the first time the world doesn't match the script.
Commander's intent isn't a military idea. It's how you delegate to anyone — or anything — that has to think when you're not in the room.
J.5 — [DRAFT] (spicy 28 · novel 50 · attention 66)
The hardest rep is the one no one will ever see.
Anyone can perform discipline with an audience. The work that compounds is the boring set you do when nobody's watching — when skipping it would cost you nothing and no one would ever know.
I think about this with my team, my training, and the small agents I'm building: the unglamorous maintenance, the test no one asked for, the honest log entry. The war isn't won in the highlight reel. It's won in the reps that don't make it.
Edit or approve on the Social page; this list mirrors it.
K.1 — [DRAFT] (spicy 62 · novel 66 · attention 80)
If a government can switch off your AI model overnight, you didn't buy a capability. You rented one.
Local-first isn't paranoia. It's the difference between owning your tools and hoping the landlord likes you.
K.2 — [DRAFT] (spicy 80 · novel 40 · attention 79)
Most “productivity” tools are just a prettier way to avoid the one hard thing on your list.
You don't need another app. You need to do the thing you've been dodging since Tuesday.
(Writing this instead of doing mine. I see it too.)
K.3 — [DRAFT] (spicy 50 · novel 78 · attention 76)
MoE model: ~100 “experts” you can't name, can't pick, can't watch.
My setup: ~100 agents I named, chose, and can audit line by line.
Glass box beats black box the moment the system runs your actual life.
K.4 — [DRAFT] (spicy 44 · novel 72 · attention 71)
Stop choosing between the smart model and the cheap one.
Run the smart one on the real work. Let it teach a small local model on the side. In a month the cheap one does the boring 80% and you kept the receipts.
Edit or approve on the Social page; this list mirrors it.
more like this less like this send me the whole article
The most serious test to date of open source AI’s viability is happening right now. I’ve seen many waves of anti open-source AI rhetoric come and go since ChatGPT was launched, but none of them had obvious analogues in their potential enforcement to real action already in place targeting the peer, closed models of the day. It is more real because new forms of regulation are being tested and implemented, with minimal oversight. I will be doing far more policy-facing writing than usual until this passes. As of writing this, many sources are citing White House discussions on how to manage open models via a new executive order.
more like this less like this send me the whole article
Release: sqlite-utils 4.1 The first dot-release since 4.0 a few days ago, introducing a number of minor new features. sqlite-utils insert and sqlite-utils upsert now accept a --code option for providing a block of Python code (or a path to a .py file) that defines a rows() function or rows iterable of rows to insert, as an alternative to importing from a file. (684) sqlite-utils already had features that allow you to pass blocks of Python code as CLI arguments, for example this one for the sqlite-utils convert command: sqlite-utils convert content.db articles headline ' def convert(value): return value.upper()' Allowing blocks of code to generate new rows directly was on obvious extension of that pattern: sqlite-utils insert data.db creatures --code ' def rows(): yield {"id": 1, "name": "Cleo"} yield {"id": 2, "name": "Suna"} ' --pk id sqlite-utils insert and sqlite-utils upsert now accept --type column-name type to override the type automatically chosen when the table is created. This is useful for CSV or TSV columns such as ZIP codes that look like integers but should be stored as TEXT to preserve leading zeros. (131) A long-standing feature request which turned out to be a simple implementation.
more like this less like this send me the whole article
arXiv:2607.08946v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: A transformer can be built from operators that are legible by construction -- bounded, named units that read as fuzzy set operations rather than dense activations -- but legibility must be pressed for during training, and the pressure has a failure mode. A crispness penalty meant to sharpen a bounded operator into a decisive detector instead collapses it into a dead constant. An identity, E[v(1-v)] = mu(1-mu) - var, shows why -- the penalty is a variance-minimizer blind to the difference between a live detector and a constant -- and names the fix: a per-channel variance floor, the target legibility metric written as a loss, which recovers both legibility and quality. A learned per-unit fraction then retires the hand-set reserved-GELU partition of prior work: given the choice the model keeps no unit as pure GELU and routes 87% of its load-bearing computation through crisp operators. The result is the most legible transformer we have built -- 78% of its feed-forward operands and 50% of its attention value channels are crisp-and-contextual detectors, and per-head legibility rises from 18% in shallow layers to 78% in deep ones.
more like this less like this send me the whole article
Here is a transcript of my remarks, anything from the audience (Q&A with comments) has been cut out. Excerpt: The problem will not be how does my life get meaning, but how do I deal with all the meaning my life will have? A kind of exhaustion. And this comes up in the labor supply debates. So again, there’s one point of view like, oh, there’s AGI, there’s going to be mass unemployment.
more like this less like this send me the whole article
Ukraine had few, if any, friends in Washington more devoted than Senator Lindsey Graham, who visited Kyiv at the end of last week. His sudden death over the weekend left the Ukrainian leadership wondering who might fill the role he played: someone who had the rare ability to talk tough with Volodymyr Zelensky, to reason with Donald Trump, and to show both presidents how their interests could align. “His soft Carolina accent delivering tough decisions will be missed,” Serhii Kyslytsia, the deputy head of Zelensky’s administration, told me today. He saw Graham twice in the week before his death, once at the NATO summit in Ankara, and again in Kyiv. “I hope there are people up to his level to pick up and bring to conclusion his ideas and initiatives.” Graham’s most recent visit with Zelensky marked at least the tenth trip he had made to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022.
more like this less like this send me the whole article
A month on from the firm's stock market debut, the reality of how SpaceX currently makes money has seemed to come into clearer focus.
Today's calendar is committed to 9 timed events, with a total of 13.5 committed hours and 2.5 hours of free time. There are no family time-blocks scheduled today, which means zero family blocks. The most important task to get done today is to prepare for the JHU systems meeting, which is scheduled for 21:00. This is a decisive priority because it has a direct impact on my academic performance and the overall success of my Systems Engineering Master's program. The meeting is scheduled for 60 minutes, and I have 2.5 hours of free time available. However, considering the meeting and other commitments, it does not fit. To protect this priority, I should defer the "Rifath Rashid and Zach Zayac" meeting, which is scheduled for 19:00 and can be rescheduled for another day. If I don't defer this meeting, I risk being unprepared for the JHU systems meeting and potentially impacting my academic performance.
| # | PRI | Task | Due | Est | Diff | S·L·A | Firm | Depends / waiting on | People |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ▲ | Pick up medication | 2026-07-11 | 60m | easy | 5·3·3 | — | — | — |
| 2 | ▲▲ | Buy flight to cats wedding | 2026-08-02 | — | — | —·—·— | — | — | — |
| 3 | ▲ | Move CVS medication ⊘ blocked | — | 60m | medium | 5·3·3 | — | CVS pharmacy staff · Remove blocker: waiting on C · 👤 CVS | — |
Wed Aug 5 all-day Leave for Cats Wedding
Fri Aug 7 12:00pm–8:00pm Catherine cousin wedding
Wed Aug 12 2:30pm–3:30pm H Neurology Appointment
Sat Aug 15 12:00pm–8:00pm Lusann wedding
Tue Aug 18 all-day Leave
Tue Aug 18 12:00pm–1:00pm M Call With Hymie ⚠ on an away day
Wed Aug 19 all-day Whole Family NY
Fri Aug 28 2:00pm–8:00pm M Nora Pre-K Graduation
387 agent runs across 34 agents (completed: 386, failed: 1).
_Agents: acceptance-gate, adaptive-gap-filler, backlog-reconciler, button-labeler, calendar-scribe, capture-janitor, cascade-engine, cascade-outbound, cascade-planner, cascade-step, cascade-trigger, condition-deriver, consequence-orchestrator, contact-autostub, deadline-agent, deconflict-life_logistics, deconflict-school, event-critic, event-parser, family-week-ahead, field-critic, inbox-sentinel, intake, note-critic, placement-reconciler, proactive-scheduler, reformatter, scoper, spine-reconciler, sub-activity-critic, title-agent, todo-assessor, todo-planner, todo-scribe_
Proposed from your open priorities (no planning agent has filed a plan yet — these are Witan's suggestion):
Pick up medication (due 2026-07-11)
Buy flight to cats wedding (due 2026-08-02)
🔄 “Johns Hopkins group project” changed — its conditions should re-derive: ADD “JHU Meeting Conflict Update”: “IF the JHU meeti… _(fb_d16856e0)_
Event critic on “Johns Hopkins group project”: The duration of the event is only 1 hour, which seems too short for an office ho… _(fb_74a34ec6)_
Your to-do “Move CVS medication” mentions CVS, but they aren't in your contacts yet — want to add their details? I started a dr… _(fb_c5701938)_
You used “CVS” — I don't have it in your Terms notebook. What does it mean (and is it an org, unit, system, or slang)? I'll rem… _(fb_7cbde26d)_
⚠ Router / Efficiency Claude looks DOWN — nothing read or replied in ~12 h; 1 item(s) waiting. _(fb_f586f939)_
🔄 “Army AM block” changed — its conditions should re-derive: ADD “Army Schedule Conflict Check”: “IF the Army PM Workblock star… _(fb_3174e76a)_
⚠ Brief Claude looks DOWN — nothing read or replied in ~3 d; 7 item(s) waiting (still down — one re-remind; your earlier Keep s… _(fb_725d320b)_
🔄 “Life Logistics block (gap fill)” changed — its conditions should re-derive: ADD “Medication Pick-up Conflict”: “IF the medic… _(fb_b67a939f)_
🔭 Consequence cascade — 4 same-shape events (“Life Logistics block (gap fill)” + siblings, trip). One review covers them all; e… _(fb_8dd48f73)_
Tuesday social is 3 hours wrong on your calendar _(fb_a7d7ee30)_
🔭 Consequence cascade — “No-Host Social Tuesday” (event). AFFECTED: “Hotel: BW Niceville Destin” (Sun Jul 12, 1:00am ET). OPTIO… _(fb_08977c59)_
🔄 Conditions re-derive (re-rendered by the RTR-60 backfill): UPDATE “No-Host Social Time Conflict”: “IF the No-Host Social time… _(fb_d441b62b)_
Nothing blocking the agents right now.
_📈 Training data: 89 labeled example(s) — calendar-mover 1, capture_janitor 26, cascade-trigger 1, code_mimicry 27, deconflict-family 1, deconflict-life_logistics 1 (+10 more); 23 DPO pair(s)._
| # | Worker | Task | Pri | Approve |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | overdue and short-term impact | Pick up medication | HIGH | |
| 2 | driven by deadline | Buy flight to cats wedding | HIGH |
Nothing held back — §F shows the entire active ledger.