Author: robert.adlington
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Interleaved Thinking
Interleaved thinking is essential for LLM agents: it means alternating between explicit reasoning and tool use, while carrying that reasoning forward between steps.This process significantly enhances planning, self‑correction, and reliability in long workflows. — Read on simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/3/minimax/
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Thinking is not Objective, has a Point of View
The Python developer reads case studies about Go’s performance and their amygdala quietly marks each one as a threat to be neutralized. The Rust advocate looks at identical problems and their Default Mode Network constructs narratives about why “only” Rust can solve them. We’re not lying. We genuinely believe our reasoning is sound. That’s what…
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MCP as Secure Gateway
Instead of a bloated API, an MCP should be a simple, secure gateway that provides a few powerful, high-level tools: download_raw_data(filters…) take_sensitive_gated_action(args…) execute_code_in_environment_with_state(code…) In this model, MCP’s job isn’t to abstract reality for the agent; its job is to manage the auth, networking, and security boundaries and then get out of the way. This makes…
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Grokipedia Is the Antithesis of Everything That Makes Wikipedia Good, Useful, and Human
…behind the scenes, there had been robust conversation and debate by Wikipedia editors as to exactly what constitutes an “unusual” death, and that several previously listed “unusual” deaths had been deleted from the list for not being weird enough. For example: People who had been speared to death with beach umbrellas are “no longer an…
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To really understand a concept, you have to “invent” it yourself in some capacity.
To really understand a concept, you have to “invent” it yourself in some capacity. Understanding doesn’t come from passive content consumption. It is always self-built. It is an active, high-agency, self-directed process of creating and debugging your own mental models. — Read on simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/30/francois-chollet/
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The evolution of Albanian AI governance – Marginal REVOLUTION
Rama said the “children,” or assistants, will record everything that happens in parliament and keep legislators informed about discussions or events they miss. “Each one…will serve as an assistant for them who will participate in parliamentary sessions, and will keep a record of everything that happens and will suggest members of parliament. These children will…
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Setting up a codebase for working with coding agents
For the most part anything that makes a codebase easier for humans to maintain turns out to help agents as well. — Read on simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/25/coding-agent-tips/
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AI as Support Staff
When I sit down for a work session, I want to feel like a surgeon walking into a prepped operating room. Everything is ready for me to do what I’m good at. — Read on simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/24/geoffrey-litt/
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Visual Features Across Modalities: SVG and ASCII Art Reveal Cross-Modal Understanding
We found that the same feature that activates over the eyes in an ASCII face also activates for eyes across diverse text-based modalities, including SVG code and prose in various languages. This is not limited to eyes – we found a number of cross-modal features that recognize specific concepts: from small components like mouths and…
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The Rose Field by Philip Pullman – nail-biting conclusion to the Northern Lights series | Fiction | The Guardian
“There are no endings,” said Hilary Mantel on the final page of Bring Up the Bodies; “they are all beginnings.” Pullman draws his great matter to a close, but he’s clear that his characters, and their stories, will continue without him – that the end of his book marks the start of their next chapter.…