J. M. Johnson
@justcallmejm.bsky.social
building epistemological intelligence 🧠✨🇺🇸🇨🇦 https://aloe.inc @aloeinc.bsky.social
If there is awareness of “I” there is agency. Awareness of “I” is primordial attention.
A liberated understanding of agency is pared down to this simple on/off of control over attention. No “degrees of agency” dependent on some outcome happening out there in the world.
A liberated understanding of agency is pared down to this simple on/off of control over attention. No “degrees of agency” dependent on some outcome happening out there in the world.
December 5, 2025 at 10:06 PM
If there is awareness of “I” there is agency. Awareness of “I” is primordial attention.
A liberated understanding of agency is pared down to this simple on/off of control over attention. No “degrees of agency” dependent on some outcome happening out there in the world.
A liberated understanding of agency is pared down to this simple on/off of control over attention. No “degrees of agency” dependent on some outcome happening out there in the world.
Turning your reward mechanism from external validation toward self-knowledge has got to be one of the best bets you can make for long term success.
November 18, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Turning your reward mechanism from external validation toward self-knowledge has got to be one of the best bets you can make for long term success.
Reposted by J. M. Johnson
Tech companies have long promised to deliver a golden age of human connection—but with AI companions, what’s actually unfolding is a digital age “more actively anti-social than the last,” @damonberes.com argues:
The Age of Anti-Social Media Is Here
The social-media era is over. What’s coming will be much worse.
bit.ly
November 6, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Tech companies have long promised to deliver a golden age of human connection—but with AI companions, what’s actually unfolding is a digital age “more actively anti-social than the last,” @damonberes.com argues:
The depth of our questioning determines the potential for our knowing.
November 3, 2025 at 1:59 AM
The depth of our questioning determines the potential for our knowing.
Reposted by J. M. Johnson
It was a pleasure speaking with @puck.news' A.I. correspondent @iankrietzberg.bsky.social about how @aloeinc.bsky.social's AI leapt ahead to state-of-the-art – and in doing so ushered in the “Dawn of the Self-Building A.I.”
Dawn of the Self-Building A.I.
News and notes on Aloe, a buzzy new entrant in the A.I. race, which is seemingly capable of building, vetting, and using tools to more reliably answer user queries.
puck.news
September 26, 2025 at 8:58 PM
It was a pleasure speaking with @puck.news' A.I. correspondent @iankrietzberg.bsky.social about how @aloeinc.bsky.social's AI leapt ahead to state-of-the-art – and in doing so ushered in the “Dawn of the Self-Building A.I.”
I’d worked alongside social entrepreneurs my entire career but never thought I had what it would take to be one myself. @arunbahl.bsky.social had to wear me down for a few years (😂) before I opened to the possibility of seeing myself holding that potential.
September 18, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I’d worked alongside social entrepreneurs my entire career but never thought I had what it would take to be one myself. @arunbahl.bsky.social had to wear me down for a few years (😂) before I opened to the possibility of seeing myself holding that potential.
There is no “getting there.”
Here is all there is.
Here is all there is.
September 10, 2025 at 9:54 AM
There is no “getting there.”
Here is all there is.
Here is all there is.
Reposted by J. M. Johnson
The Onion News Network truck is currently stationed outside the Broadview ICE Detention facility just outside of Chicago.
September 6, 2025 at 5:34 PM
The Onion News Network truck is currently stationed outside the Broadview ICE Detention facility just outside of Chicago.
As states of understanding the nature of circumstances (i.e. you really don’t control much, if anything, at all), Nihilism and Liberation are fascinatingly close.
But while one path is devoid of purpose, the other opens up infinite purposefulness.
But while one path is devoid of purpose, the other opens up infinite purposefulness.
September 7, 2025 at 10:12 PM
As states of understanding the nature of circumstances (i.e. you really don’t control much, if anything, at all), Nihilism and Liberation are fascinatingly close.
But while one path is devoid of purpose, the other opens up infinite purposefulness.
But while one path is devoid of purpose, the other opens up infinite purposefulness.
The fact that Descartes could predict that [LLMs] are incapable of reasoning ALMOST 400 YEARS AGO made me literally lol
Thank you @standehaene.bsky.social for this tidbit 💡
Thank you @standehaene.bsky.social for this tidbit 💡
September 6, 2025 at 3:48 AM
The fact that Descartes could predict that [LLMs] are incapable of reasoning ALMOST 400 YEARS AGO made me literally lol
Thank you @standehaene.bsky.social for this tidbit 💡
Thank you @standehaene.bsky.social for this tidbit 💡
Speed is a startup's primary advantage. Seeing speed and trust at odds with one another is zero-sum thinking that gets us into a whole lot of mess (and destroys value over time). There is tension to manage, of course, but who thought building a generational company was going to be easy??
September 5, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Speed is a startup's primary advantage. Seeing speed and trust at odds with one another is zero-sum thinking that gets us into a whole lot of mess (and destroys value over time). There is tension to manage, of course, but who thought building a generational company was going to be easy??
Great strides in human progress never start as consensus bets.
The path to pursue progress is always the harder path.
Dollars are always scarce where there’s a challenge to the dominant paradigm trying to get lift-off. Where there is already money, there is incentive to not disrupt the system.
The path to pursue progress is always the harder path.
Dollars are always scarce where there’s a challenge to the dominant paradigm trying to get lift-off. Where there is already money, there is incentive to not disrupt the system.
September 4, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Great strides in human progress never start as consensus bets.
The path to pursue progress is always the harder path.
Dollars are always scarce where there’s a challenge to the dominant paradigm trying to get lift-off. Where there is already money, there is incentive to not disrupt the system.
The path to pursue progress is always the harder path.
Dollars are always scarce where there’s a challenge to the dominant paradigm trying to get lift-off. Where there is already money, there is incentive to not disrupt the system.
Today’s “leading” AI companies have burnt through any public trust they had at a far faster rate than I could’ve imagined.
The status quo business model for tech is: make customers the product. Extract from them. Profit off of them.
The status quo business model for tech is: make customers the product. Extract from them. Profit off of them.
August 29, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Today’s “leading” AI companies have burnt through any public trust they had at a far faster rate than I could’ve imagined.
The status quo business model for tech is: make customers the product. Extract from them. Profit off of them.
The status quo business model for tech is: make customers the product. Extract from them. Profit off of them.
The news about 16-year-old Adam Raine hits hard.
Adam's parents filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, blaming them for Adam’s death. “This tragedy was not a glitch or an unforeseen edge case — it was the predictable result of deliberate design choices."
Adam's parents filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, blaming them for Adam’s death. “This tragedy was not a glitch or an unforeseen edge case — it was the predictable result of deliberate design choices."
August 28, 2025 at 7:12 AM
The news about 16-year-old Adam Raine hits hard.
Adam's parents filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, blaming them for Adam’s death. “This tragedy was not a glitch or an unforeseen edge case — it was the predictable result of deliberate design choices."
Adam's parents filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, blaming them for Adam’s death. “This tragedy was not a glitch or an unforeseen edge case — it was the predictable result of deliberate design choices."
We won’t get comfort in an egalitarian society. Autocracy is efficient; pluralism is effortful. It’s uncomfortable to work with others’ differences.
The reason we can’t have nice things in society is because we want it to be easy.
The reason we can’t have nice things in society is because we want it to be easy.
August 23, 2025 at 10:51 PM
We won’t get comfort in an egalitarian society. Autocracy is efficient; pluralism is effortful. It’s uncomfortable to work with others’ differences.
The reason we can’t have nice things in society is because we want it to be easy.
The reason we can’t have nice things in society is because we want it to be easy.
Existence is zero sum: life against entropy.
But it’s also futile; it will always lose. Why get too sucked up into the zero sum game and distance ourselves as “I/me/mine” and “others”?
We can choose to see others as pieces of ourselves - our true, whole self: we are the same story playing out.
But it’s also futile; it will always lose. Why get too sucked up into the zero sum game and distance ourselves as “I/me/mine” and “others”?
We can choose to see others as pieces of ourselves - our true, whole self: we are the same story playing out.
May 11, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Existence is zero sum: life against entropy.
But it’s also futile; it will always lose. Why get too sucked up into the zero sum game and distance ourselves as “I/me/mine” and “others”?
We can choose to see others as pieces of ourselves - our true, whole self: we are the same story playing out.
But it’s also futile; it will always lose. Why get too sucked up into the zero sum game and distance ourselves as “I/me/mine” and “others”?
We can choose to see others as pieces of ourselves - our true, whole self: we are the same story playing out.
If you are looking to have interesting conversations where you might actually learn something, there is incredible alpha in questioning whether the other person is asking the right questions.
May 1, 2025 at 8:00 PM
If you are looking to have interesting conversations where you might actually learn something, there is incredible alpha in questioning whether the other person is asking the right questions.
Ironically, eschewing identity will make you a better __________ [fill in the blank].
Ego seductively reifies itself while making you brittle. Unencumbered by ego, you can learn and flow with reality as it is.
Ego seductively reifies itself while making you brittle. Unencumbered by ego, you can learn and flow with reality as it is.
April 16, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Ironically, eschewing identity will make you a better __________ [fill in the blank].
Ego seductively reifies itself while making you brittle. Unencumbered by ego, you can learn and flow with reality as it is.
Ego seductively reifies itself while making you brittle. Unencumbered by ego, you can learn and flow with reality as it is.
Not enough capital allocators think of themselves as value creators. Many simply trade value:
"I'll give you this grant / this investment; you'll create this benefit / this return."
"I'll give you this grant / this investment; you'll create this benefit / this return."
April 2, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Not enough capital allocators think of themselves as value creators. Many simply trade value:
"I'll give you this grant / this investment; you'll create this benefit / this return."
"I'll give you this grant / this investment; you'll create this benefit / this return."
It’s common to approach an inner journey as trying to “create wholeness” inside.
Counterintuitively, such an approach is self-defeating. It’s a bet against yourself.
Counterintuitively, such an approach is self-defeating. It’s a bet against yourself.
April 2, 2025 at 9:16 PM
It’s common to approach an inner journey as trying to “create wholeness” inside.
Counterintuitively, such an approach is self-defeating. It’s a bet against yourself.
Counterintuitively, such an approach is self-defeating. It’s a bet against yourself.