Reading the Water

Reading the Water

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How a ChatGPT Prompt Log Became a 43-Module AI Reasoning Framework

In 2023, I had a ChatGPT Project with a growing stack of files in the knowledgebase. Not a framework. Just files. Instructions I'd written. Patterns I'd noticed. Things I wanted the model to carry between sessions. I was running a one-person shop, no team to

Open pocket watch revealing intricate mechanical movement — representing the engine built over six years of AI development

Solo AI Builder: 6 Years, 4 Frameworks, No Partners

From Google Ads scripts to 450 commits a month — and what ten years of going solo actually taught me about building alone in the AI era.

Three identical analog pressure gauges in a row on a matte navy surface, bright green needles all at the same reading. Three benchmark arms, identical result. -->

Benchmarking KnowledgeForge on GAIA: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I'm building KnowledgeForge (KF) — a reasoning framework that sits on top of a base model and routes work to specialized modes: a Critic for finding gaps, a Debugger for diagnosing failures, a Strategist for trade-off decisions, a Builder for producing artifacts. The promise is easy to state

Surreal scene: glowing AGI brain emits art, music, code; cracked gavel on broken IP law book. Text: Authorship Void, Inventorship Fiction, Incentive Collapse, Training Data Ratchet.

Who Owns What AGI Creates? Nobody. That's the Problem.

Creatorship of AGI David Pedersen / NW AGI Group April 2026 Abstract Roman Yampolskiy's 2022 paper "Ownability of AGI" identified multiple structural barriers to AGI ownership — principally unpredictability, unexplainability, and uncontrollability, alongside self-modification, ease of theft, and contested AI rights — concluding that AGI, as a class

Stop tinkering & start building. Discover 10 hard-won lessons from 3 years of surviving the AIPocalypse. Learn to build systems that guide AI, outmaneuver the loops, and level up your tools.

From AI Tinkerer to Tool Builder: Three Years of Surviving the AIPocalypse

Three years ago, I made a decision that would reshape everything: if I was going to survive the coming AIPocalypse, I would need to control the AI, or the AI would control me. It started at Seattle's AI Tinkerers meetups—rooms full of engineers, entrepreneurs, and curious minds

The Woman Who Taught Me to Think Like an Entrepreneur

Sixteen years ago, I was the new guy at Whitepages, trying to figure out search marketing in a city where I barely knew anyone. That's when I discovered the Seattle search community—a scrappy group of SEM specialists who met monthly to share war stories about Google'

I Built a Psychology-Based Copy Analyzer. Here’s What 200+ Real B2B Messages Taught Me.

For the past year, I've been building COS — a tool that uses Big Five personality psychology to analyze B2B communications. Not grammar. Not readability. Personality coverage. The premise is simple: every piece of copy you write passes through an invisible psychological filter in your reader's brain.