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SocioTechnica
@sociotechnica.org
39 followers 12 following 15 posts
Creating at the intersection of people, systems, & technology. A @jessmart.in and @danversfleury.bsky.social project.
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SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · 14d
We will be writing more about this soon!
jessmart.in Jess Martin @jessmart.in · 14d
I'm finding it's more valuable lately to spend my time on "build the software factory" than to actually build the software directly.

Improving the quality of work and parallelization across my AI agents is a huge force multiplier.
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danversfleury.bsky.social
Danvers Fleury @danversfleury.bsky.social · Aug 25
So, I spent two weeks trying to be my own personal executive assistantto build a stronger mental model of an AI admin. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! sociotechnica.org/notebook/lif...
Working My Life Into Burnout
A personal experiment in applying professional project management systems to personal life - and the surprising results.
sociotechnica.org
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Aug 20
We are cookin'!
jessmart.in Jess Martin @jessmart.in · Aug 20
I've made a *lot* of @tldraw.com's over the years, but these two might be my most favorite, ever

#nocontextwhiteboards
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jessmart.in
Jess Martin @jessmart.in · Aug 18
At @sociotechnica.org we've been working on an "agentic environment" called Work Squared for a few months and it's starting to feel truly useful!

youtu.be/1yfpGT6B50w

Core concepts:
- Agents and humans can collaborate on all of the work products
- Make it visual - see everything that's happening
Work Squared - Product Demo - 2025-08-16
YouTube video by Coding with Jess
youtu.be
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Reposted by SocioTechnica
jessmart.in
Jess Martin @jessmart.in · Aug 13
AI advantages existing platforms.

The more data/tools you have, the more AI can do. Incumbents will sherlock every innovation.

Yet AI also requires rethinking software from scratch.

What will prevail: platform dominance vs startup disruption?

notes.jessmart.in/Lab+Notebook...
AI advantages existing platforms - Jess's Lab Notebook
AI advantages existing platforms AI fundamentally benefits from aggregation—of data, tools, and user context. This creates a powerful gravitational pull toward existing platforms. The more comprehens…
notes.jessmart.in
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Reposted by SocioTechnica
danversfleury.bsky.social
Danvers Fleury @danversfleury.bsky.social · Aug 7
Good news: In my pursuit of work life balance, the scale is balanced at 50 / 50.

Bad news: The scale can't handle this much weight.

Can all the latest AI model breakthroughs now save me from myself?

WorkSquared Labnote #5: sociotechnica.org/notebook/ove...
Can AI Cure My Addiction to Overcommitting?
Exploring how AI can help manage the balance between work and life when you're overcommitted to both.
sociotechnica.org
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danversfleury.bsky.social
Danvers Fleury @danversfleury.bsky.social · Jun 13
Many people get very little out of AI chatbots.

What if we applied old school "edtech" (Kay / Piaget / Bruner) to humanize the AI experience?

WorkSquared Labnote #4: sociotechnica.org/notebook/sym...
Beyond the Symbolic: Humanizing AI Tools
Exploring Alan Kay's UI design philosophy through the lens of Bruner's learning stages, from DOS to Snap Circuits to Claude Projects.
sociotechnica.org
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Reposted by SocioTechnica
jessmart.in
Jess Martin @jessmart.in · Jun 6
Ran multiple Claude Code instances in parallel yesterday to speed up development. Wild experience with some surprising challenges.

The short answer: yes, Claude can definitely asynchronously get stuff done, but the setup is way more complex than expected.

Thread on what I learned 🧵
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Reposted by SocioTechnica
chrisshank.com
𝕮 @chrisshank.com · Jun 4
The crux
"Digital technology is infrastructure. Infrastructure is powerful, it shapes what runs on it and governs its users. Authoritarian infrastructure leads to an authoritarian society."
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Reposted by SocioTechnica
danversfleury.bsky.social
Danvers Fleury @danversfleury.bsky.social · Jun 5
A 6 hour innovation sprint with Claude 4 Opus.

Maybe 4 days worth of work in 2023?

A play-by-play write-up with example prompts. sociotechnica.org/notebook/pla...
Innovation Session Planning using AI
How we used AI to plan an innovation session.
sociotechnica.org
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Reposted by SocioTechnica
jessmart.in
Jess Martin @jessmart.in · Jun 4
Moving my @sociotechnica.org projects from Google Docs to @obsidian.md + Relay from System 3[1].

Been using Obsidian heavily as a solo user for years now. Excited to try as a team. Also added an "agent" account.

Wish me luck!

[1] system3.md/relay
Relay - True multiplayer for Obsidian
Transform Obsidian into a collaborative environment. Real-time editing, offline support, and selective folder sharing that respects your privacy. Fast, reliable, and conflict-free.
system3.md
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danversfleury.bsky.social
Danvers Fleury @danversfleury.bsky.social · Jun 3
I was seeking UI inspiration for an AI native workspace. Plot twist: the best UI education was in my childhood games. Join me on a nostalgic 16-bit journey through retro games that solve the complexity paradox better than most modern day apps: sociotechnica.org/notebook/ws-...
a tetris game has a score of 72664 and lines of 20
ALT: a tetris game has a score of 72664 and lines of 20
media.tenor.com
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Jun 3
We have started publishing Lab Notes, sharing our process and learnings from various explorations.

The first three notes are posted to read.

More coming soon!

sociotechnica.org/notebook
Lab Notes
SocioTechnica Lab Notes - thoughts, experiments, and works in progress.
sociotechnica.org
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jessmart.in
Jess Martin @jessmart.in · May 12
Reading about Civilization I (1991) for UX inspiration.
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
What's next?

We're building a AI intern in this new environment and planning a bakeoff against Pat Sharpe's approach.

Stay tuned for results and more technical deep-dives...

Read the full update here: sociotechnica.org/q1-2025-update
SocioTechnica Q1 2025 Update
SocioTechnica Q1 2025 Update
sociotechnica.org
sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
What might Pat's replacement be like?

An invention of necessity:
👁️ Environmental Awareness: A shared data environment where the AI sees context & remembers past actions
⚒️ Tool Autonomy: Agents discover, request & create their own tools
🤝 True Partnership: Genuine human-AI collaboration
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
Let's look at Pat Sharpe's 3-month performance review:
❎ Needs microscopic task breakdowns
❎ Forgets everything after each task
❎ Never learns from mistakes
❎ Can't do basic math
❎ Works in a windowless room with no awareness
❎ Needs everything translated to simplified formats

You're fired. 🙅
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
The results: $4.33/day average over two weeks ✅

We (almost) hit our $5/day target! But what we built was still fairly dumb—essentially just fancy scripts that don't truly leverage the reasoning capabilities that make agents interesting.
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
What worked well: Communication!

Our LLM kept us updated through Discord with helpful and fun pirate-themed messages. No need to specify exact text—the AI knew how to be engaging and clear when reporting back.
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
Problem 3: LLMs are bad at math 🧮

We saw this coming.

Calculating profit margins is crucial, and AI consistently makes elementary errors. Even giving it a calculator didn't help—calculators require knowing how to use them properly!

We ended up writing custom calculation tools instead.
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
Problem 2: Big context windows ≠ smarter

LLMs often drew incorrect conclusions or overlooked details when parsing the entire HTML for the page.

We had to transform everything into simplified, structured formats like CSV with filtered columns.
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
Problem #1: Claude has a vision problem 👀

Our AI confused browser UI with website content, misread digits, and struggled with navigation.

An LLM with vision issues + your credit card = danger! We had to shift to browser automation scripts instead.
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
Meet Pat Sharpe, our pirate-talking AI intern! 🏴‍☠️🏀

We built a simple trading system with clear rules:
- Buy low, sell high-ish
- Target uninjured stars on playoff teams
- Make offers below market
- Post purchases for resale
- Talk like a pirate, arrr!
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
Our Q1 goal: build a system where AI agents could make us $5/day in a marketplace—a stepping stone to economically-valuable AI agents.

We chose NBA Top Shot as our testing ground. Why a dying market? Because we know it well, and handing AI your credit card is weird enough without extra variables.
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sociotechnica.org
SocioTechnica @sociotechnica.org · Apr 17
Sorry HAL, it's not me, it's you.

We gave an AI our credit card to trade NFTs, then had to fire our digital intern after 3 months. Here's what happened when we tried to make $5/day with AI agents...

🧵 A Q1 2025 Update from SocioTechnica
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