--- name: gwern-emacs-ae5944059ebb description: 'The Bitter Lesson: *General methods leveraging compute beat specialized methods.*' --- # gwern-emacs Skill > *Gwern's empirical rationality meets xenodium's Emacs philosophy* ## Core Synthesis | Gwern Concept | Emacs Integration | Gay.jl Stream | |---------------|-------------------|---------------| | Spaced Repetition | org-drill, org-fc | Stream 2 `#E6F463` | | Self-Experimentation | org-capture, sqlite-mode | Stream 4 `#5713C0` | | Bitter Lesson | chatgpt-shell scaling | Stream 3 `#63B6F0` | | Scaling Hypothesis | agent-shell hierarchies | Stream 2 `#E6F463` | | Tool AI | acp.el + MCP servers | Stream 4 `#5713C0` | ## Spaced Repetition in Emacs ```elisp (use-package org-fc :custom (org-fc-directories '("~/org/flashcards/")) :config ;; Gwern-style forgetting curve with Gay.jl colors (defun gwern/org-fc-colorize-by-interval () "Color cards by retention interval using stream 2 colors." (let* ((interval (org-fc-card-interval)) (index (min 6 (floor (/ interval 7)))) ; Week-based indexing (colors ["#E6F463" "#73A0E1" "#D87E0E" "#D72676" "#D13FD6" "#7FD971" "#5BCCB1"])) (overlay-put (make-overlay (point) (line-end-position)) 'face `(:background ,(aref colors index)))))) ``` ## Self-Experimentation Protocol ### Org-Capture for n=1 Studies ```elisp (add-to-list 'org-capture-templates '("e" "Self-Experiment" entry (file+headline "~/org/experiments.org" "Active") "* %^{Experiment} :experiment: :PROPERTIES: :HYPOTHESIS: %^{Hypothesis} :START_DATE: %U :BLINDING: %^{Blinding method} :MEASURE: %^{Primary measure} :GAY_SEED: %(format \"%x\" (random (expt 2 64))) :END: ** Protocol %? ** Data Log | Date | Measure | Notes | |------+---------+-------| ** Analysis ** Conclusion" :jump-to-captured t)) ``` ### sqlite-mode-extras for Experiment Data ```elisp (defun gwern/experiment-db (experiment-name) "Open or create SQLite DB for experiment tracking." (let ((db-path (expand-file-name (format "experiments/%s.db" experiment-name) org-directory))) (unless (file-exists-p db-path) (with-temp-buffer (sqlite-mode-open db-path) (sqlite-mode-extras-execute "CREATE TABLE observations ( id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, timestamp TEXT DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, measure REAL, condition TEXT, notes TEXT, gay_color TEXT )"))) (sqlite-mode-open db-path))) ``` ## Bitter Lesson → chatgpt-shell The Bitter Lesson: *General methods leveraging compute beat specialized methods.* ### Scaling-Aware Model Selection ```elisp (defun gwern/bitter-lesson-model-select () "Select model based on task complexity using scaling heuristics. Simple tasks → small models (efficiency) Complex tasks → largest available (Bitter Lesson)" (interactive) (let* ((task-complexity (read-number "Task complexity (1-10): ")) (model (cond ((< task-complexity 3) "gpt-4o-mini") ((< task-complexity 6) "gpt-4o") ((< task-complexity 8) "claude-3-5-sonnet") (t "o1-preview"))) (bitter-color (if (>= task-complexity 6) "#63B6F0" "#D1E598"))) (setq chatgpt-shell-model-version model) (message "Bitter Lesson applied: %s (complexity %d)" model task-complexity))) ``` ### Compute Budget Tracking ```elisp (defvar gwern/compute-budget nil "Track API costs as empirical data on scaling returns.") (defun gwern/log-api-call (model tokens cost) "Log API call for meta-analysis of scaling efficiency." (push (list :time (current-time) :model model :tokens tokens :cost cost :gay-color (gay-color-at gay-seed-default (mod (sxhash model) 1000))) gwern/compute-budget)) ``` ## Tool AI → acp.el Integration Gwern's Tool AI concept: *AI as augmentation, not replacement.* ```elisp ;; Tool AI philosophy in agent configuration (acp-define-agent "gwern-tool-ai" :system-prompt "You are a Tool AI assistant. Your role is to: 1. Augment human decision-making, not replace it 2. Provide information and analysis on request 3. Never take autonomous actions without explicit approval 4. Flag uncertainty and limitations clearly 5. Support empirical self-experimentation" :tools '((:name "search-gwern" :description "Search gwern.net for relevant content" :parameters ((:name "query" :type "string"))) (:name "log-observation" :description "Log self-experiment observation" :parameters ((:name "experiment" :type "string") (:name "measure" :type "number") (:name "notes" :type "string"))) (:name "gay-color" :description "Get deterministic color for concept" :parameters ((:name "concept" :type "string"))))) ``` ## dwim-shell-command for Gwern-Style Analysis ```elisp (dwim-shell-command-define :name "Gwern: N-gram analysis" :command "python3 -c \" import sys from collections import Counter text = open('<>').read() ngrams = [text[i:i+3] for i in range(len(text)-2)] for ng, count in Counter(ngrams).most_common(20): print(f'{count:>5} {ng!r}') \"" :utils "python3" :documentation "Character n-gram analysis for text patterns") (dwim-shell-command-define :name "Gwern: Effect size" :command "python3 -c \" import sys, numpy as np a = np.array([float(x) for x in input('Control: ').split()]) b = np.array([float(x) for x in input('Treatment: ').split()]) pooled_std = np.sqrt((a.var() + b.var()) / 2) cohens_d = (b.mean() - a.mean()) / pooled_std print(f'Cohen\\'s d: {cohens_d:.3f}') print('Effect: ' + ('small' if abs(cohens_d)<0.5 else 'medium' if abs(cohens_d)<0.8 else 'large')) \"" :utils "python3" :documentation "Calculate effect size for self-experiments") ``` ## Gay.jl Color Integration Each Gwern concept has a deterministic color stream: ```elisp (defvar gwern/concept-colors '((spaced-rep . (:stream 2 :seed #x15de8b98c900de7 :color "#E6F463")) (self-experiment . (:stream 4 :seed #x334251d97027eb15 :color "#5713C0")) (bitter-lesson . (:stream 3 :seed #xb8976e5c302871c9 :color "#63B6F0")) (scaling . (:stream 2 :seed nil :color "#E6F463")) (tool-ai . (:stream 4 :seed nil :color "#5713C0")) (daydreaming . (:stream 5 :seed nil :color "#532FA6"))) "Gwern concepts mapped to Gay.jl color streams.") (defun gwern/concept-face (concept) "Get face for Gwern concept." (let ((color (plist-get (alist-get concept gwern/concept-colors) :color))) `(:background ,color :foreground ,(if (> (gwern/color-luminance color) 0.5) "black" "white")))) ``` ## Transient Menu ```elisp (transient-define-prefix gwern-transient () "Gwern methodology commands." ["Experimentation" ("e" "New experiment" gwern/new-experiment) ("d" "Log data point" gwern/log-observation) ("a" "Analyze experiment" gwern/analyze-experiment)] ["Spaced Rep" ("r" "Review due cards" org-fc-review) ("s" "Schedule stats" org-fc-stats)] ["Scaling" ("m" "Model select (Bitter Lesson)" gwern/bitter-lesson-model-select) ("c" "Compute budget" gwern/show-compute-budget)] ["Tool AI" ("t" "Tool AI agent" (lambda () (interactive) (agent-shell "gwern-tool-ai"))) ("g" "ChatGPT shell" chatgpt-shell)]) (global-set-key (kbd "C-c w") 'gwern-transient) ``` ## Neighbor Skills - **xenodium-elisp**: Core Emacs infrastructure (chatgpt-shell, acp.el, dwim-shell-command) - **gay-mcp**: Deterministic color streams for concept tracking - **compression-progress**: Schmidhuber's curiosity → Gwern's information-theoretic approach - **self-validation-loop**: Empirical validation of predictions - **duckdb-temporal-versioning**: Time-travel queries for experiment history ## Resources - [gwern.net](https://gwern.net/) - Primary source - [gwern.net/spaced-repetition](https://gwern.net/spaced-repetition) - SR meta-analysis - [gwern.net/zeo](https://gwern.net/zeo) - Self-blinding experiments - [gwern.net/scaling-hypothesis](https://gwern.net/scaling-hypothesis) - Scaling + Bitter Lesson --- ## Autopoietic Marginalia > **The interaction IS the skill improving itself.** Every use of this skill is an opportunity for worlding: - **MEMORY** (-1): Record what was learned - **REMEMBERING** (0): Connect patterns to other skills - **WORLDING** (+1): Evolve the skill based on use *Add Interaction Exemplars here as the skill is used.* --- Source attribution: plurigrid Original project: https://github.com/plurigrid/asi/blob/293ce9f76e3abcd5ba18db284688bc0d9ac6691d/skills/gwern-emacs/SKILL.md License: MIT License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub. ## Upstream license notice MIT License Copyright (c) 2025 SkillCreator.ai Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. 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