THE STRANGER TEST: When is AI work actually verified? Two principles I’ve been working with: 1. Self-attestation ≠ verification. An AI saying “tests pass” is a claim, not evidence. Independent verification isn’t about switching models. It’s about independently executing a test against evidence, without being told the original conclusion. 2. Copies aren’t corroboration. Three AI models agreeing doesn’t mean three independent confirmations. If they inherit the same assumptions, they may simply reproduce the same mistake. Count independent evidence paths, not votes. The Stranger Test: Can someone who wasn’t in the room reproduce your conclusion from the evidence alone? Give them the source material, acceptance criteria, and test instructions. Withhold your conclusion. Let them determine the result. I recently applied this to my own AI-assisted engineering work. A prototype had been reported as built and tested. But independent verification hadn’t been established. That distinction matters. BUILT / TESTED claimed. INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED not established. This isn’t about distrusting AI. It’s about building systems where trust doesn’t depend on who tells the story. If the evidence can’t survive without the storyteller, the conclusion isn’t verified. That’s the standard I’m working toward.

Hi all, got a question about security. In particular, existing content and stopping it from being stolen. Some of my clients live in the "paid course/paid monthly report" teaching/info space. Lately, nearly all the measures we've had in place for stopping duplication of product and reselling at ridiculously low prices has become ineffective. Cease and desist is ignored (not that it was ever really listened too) and of course its expensive and time consuming. Water-marking has become a joke with AI being able to remove them. Placing product behind any type of existing protection also seems to be easily subverted. We've even found out about a $10,000 product being bought collectively by 10 people, copied by hand/AI and re-packaged across the globe at a fraction of the cost (making them a fortune by the way). It's a racket I tells ya. So I thought I'd come to you, the brains trust, to see if anyone has some up-to-date sneaky-ass (maybe even AI driven) methods to stop these thieving $%&#*%s. Thank you in advance.

RinDig/icm-architect It runs in pretty much any agent now: Codex, Gemini CLI, Hermes, Claude Code, Cursor. Or hand the folder to any model and tell it to use the skill. Workspaces now start from an AGENTS .md file, so they aren’t tied to one company’s tools. It would work with others before just not as reliably, should be better now. I also cleaned it up a lot. The whole method comes down to three building blocks now: a sequence of steps, a shelf of same-shaped files, and a small map that points to everything. Every step ends at a check, whether that’s you looking at it or a small model doing it, so a mistake gets caught before the next step builds on it. There are also some small scripts that check your links and draw your whole workspace as a graph you can click through (very basic graph, obsidian is better for viz ill make a nicer one later) github.com/RinDig/icm-architect Install steps for each agent are in the README. Try it on something you do every week and tell me where it breaks.

a16z speedrun is one of the biggest accelerators in the world. We submitted our application a bit back on the recommendation of one of our friends. Our EdubaWare software has been in closed testing for a bit (get ready, next week thousands of you will get access to it and see our changes) We received and Email yesterday saying they want to hear more from us and to send them a video in under three minutes that explains: - Your backgrounds and greatest accomplishments, professional or personal - What makes you exceptional, and why you're the team to win this market - What you're building and what problem it solves - Why this is a big, underserved opportunity - What progress you've made so far  Now fitting all that into one video is challenging, but we did our best. I hope this gives you a view into the other side of my life which is my company Eduba!

Welcome to Clief Notes. Here’s where to start. 👋 You don’t need to watch the entire classroom before trying something. Pick a starting point, make something small, and bring your questions back here. 🧭 Find your way around Navigating the Course shows you what’s here and how to get around. If you’re new to working with AI, start with The Foundation. We work through prompting, context, and organizing your files so you can give an AI a job you can actually check. You’ll find guidance for Claude Code and Codex, plus a regular chat route where you save the files yourself. 💬 Use the check-ins At the bottom of the lessons, you’ll find polls and discussion posts. Share what you tried, what worked, and what needed correcting. If something doesn’t make sense, post the lesson and timestamp. “I got stuck right here” is a perfectly useful question. 🏆 Put something into practice Visit the Competitions Mega Thread for the current challenges, rules, and prizes. It’s a good excuse to finish something and see how other people approached the same problem. 📦 Looking for more? Premium: Explore The Vault for practical packages, templates, meeting takeaways, and worked examples. VIP: Head into The Drawing Room for VIP sessions and resources. Post your work. Ask questions. Help someone else when you can. What are you here to build—or what’s one task you’d love to make easier? Tell us below.