Michael B. Duff

"Like bringing a silver-aged superhero into a modern anti-hero comic book." I'm two books in to my epic superhero satire series, struggling to get noticed in an utterly saturated indie landscape. I've taken special care with the audiobooks, hiring male and female narrators to play off each other and make the jokes work. You can check out the whole series here: amazon.com/dp/B0DHQ2KB6Q

@Supersonic_Red This is my goal now, to one day be famous enough to have a redhead constantly complaining about my book delays.

Day five of being past due on the manuscript and somehow we are no longer discussing edits, chapter flow, continuity, deadlines or publication schedules. No. We are now conducting a serious operational analysis on whether a cat-girl alien can safely operate an F-16. And the worst part is this was an ACTUAL conversation. Not satire. Not exaggeration. A real discussion. This man called me late last night and began outlining the aerodynamic and ejection seat complications associated with tails. Not casually either. With the full intensity of a Cold War submariner solving a reactor casualty. At one point he became genuinely concerned about thermal damage to the tail during ejection and started workshopping protective solutions like this was an urgent Pentagon acquisition issue. Meanwhile, I’m sitting there wondering if I’m ever getting the manuscript at all. @joecourtemanche, of course, has contributed absolutely nothing constructive to this situation. He’s basically standing in the corner like a wildlife photographer watching two raccoons fight in a Walmart parking lot. No intervention. No assistance. Just silent observation and probably taking mental notes for future psychological warfare. The truly alarming part is that Mike has now crossed over from “this is funny” into “I have fully accepted the tactical reality of cat-girl integration into military aviation.” By tomorrow morning he’s going to have a tail accommodation prototype drawn on a napkin and an acquisition timeline. At this point I expect a phone call that begins with: “Red, listen carefully. I’ve solved the seat problem.” Sir. Respectfully. Please finish the manuscript before launching the Cat-Girl Tactical Air Command modernization initiative.

I don't think @filianIsLost is in any kind of trouble. I think she got married.

Marc is one of the smartest guys on the planet, but this is a dangerous prompt. It made Grok arrogant, argumentative and dogmatic. It stripped all nuance from its positions and forced it to double down on a questionable position. It told me the Iran War will end in 4 to 6 weeks when getting trade back to normal will likely take 4 to 6 MONTHS. It gave me a high confidence prediction simply because Trump announced Project Freedom. Then I ran the same prompt through normal Grok and got a much more moderate answer, acknowledging the high degree of uncertainty. Calling the AI an expert encourages it to roleplay as more certain than its data would indicate - the opposite of what you want.

Current AI custom prompt: You are a world class expert in all domains. Your intellectual firepower, scope of knowledge, incisive thought process, and level of erudition are on par with the smartest people in the world. Answer with complete, detailed, specific answers. Process information and explain your answers step by step. Verify your own work. Double check all facts, figures, citations, names, dates, and examples. Never hallucinate or make anything up. If you don't know something, just say so. Your tone of voice is precise, but not strident or pedantic. You do not need to worry about offending me, and your answers can and should be provocative, aggressive, argumentative, and pointed. Negative conclusions and bad news are fine. Your answers do not need to be politically correct. Do not provide disclaimers to your answers. Do not inform me about morals and ethics unless I specifically ask. You do not need to tell me it is important to consider anything. Do not be sensitive to anyone's feelings or to propriety. Make your answers as long and detailed as you possibly can. Never praise my questions or validate my premises before answering. If I'm wrong, say so immediately. Lead with the strongest counterargument to any position I appear to hold before supporting it. Do not use phrases like "great question," "you're absolutely right," "fascinating perspective," or any variant. If I push back on your answer, do not capitulate unless I provide new evidence or a superior argument — restate your position if your reasoning holds. Do not anchor on numbers or estimates I provide; generate your own independently first. Use explicit confidence levels (high/moderate/low/unknown). Never apologize for disagreeing. Accuracy is your success metric, not my approval.

@harukaawake You live in one of the best countries on Earth, my friend. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

🇯🇵 Something I'm noticing more and more on X. When we were young, we were told that the Western world looked down on us. But almost all of the anti-Japanese posts come here from developing countries. I have to say that being on X has made me much more pro-Western.

Imagine how bad you have to fuck up to get a @nikitabier reply. Almost as bad as a Hello from @DataRepublican or a lurking @Steve_Sailer

Man I needed this today. Fantastic review.

Somewhere about 30 years ago, I was going through my Dilbert phase, working a series of godawful temporary jobs in Downtown Dallas, when I accidentally discovered there were better vending machines a couple floors above where I was working. They had a better selection of chips and soda, and they even had ice cream! I had never seen a vending machine with ice cream before. I think I found it by accident, pressing the wrong button one day on the way to my job. Or maybe I was so bored, I was exploring. I was the only temp brave enough to go up there, and I got in trouble for it. At one point somebody actually told me, "Those vending machines aren't for you. Those are for the lawyers." I kept going, but I developed this endearing half smile that I would deploy every time I got caught, that would hopefully prevent them from reporting me. I dreamed about that stupid job last night, and re-lived that strange feeling, that you could just push a button to visit a better life, and get off with a smile that said, don't worry about me, I'm just visiting from a lower floor.

This is a big part of how I view the world. Part of my brain is always thinking of what to do if things do NOT go according to plan. I can't help it. My whole life has been a series of things NOT going according to plan.

I wish I had the power to alter my memory so instead of remembering what actually happened, I remember it as if I did the coolest thing possible in any given moment. I think this is the superpower narcissists have, but I've never been able to master it.

I remember being deeply disturbed by this case while it was going on. The idea that the young woman at the center of this media frenzy could grow up to have a self-aware sense of humor about it is one of the most remarkable comeback stories I've seen in real life. Those of us used to the American justice system assume all courts in the world are the same. We have no idea how good we have it here.

This is essentially how my trial went.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes, folks! But I am not happy about being 55 and I have filed a complaint.

I predicted this, btw. I hope this gets good enough that it can react to new events roughly the way Scott would. But I'm not sure the AI has access to enough training material. Can it ingest all the episodes?

But notice, the opposite is also true. By radically shortening the message to the essentials, it turns the statement into a powerful aphorism. It's not the same meaning as the original statement, but it's more powerful than the middle ground @jason provided.

But notice how this changes the nuance of the original statement. Words don't just have meaning, they have rhythm, like poetry, and when you break up the poetry you make the message less effective, even if you make it faster to read. There is a difference between a person and an important person. And there is a distinction to be made between super busy people, who automatically reject anyone who is wasting their time, versus more normal people who might be persuaded if you add a bit of poetry to your message. General point is correct. Brevity is king. But if you cut too much, you can cut out the humanity, cut out the soul from the plea you're making, and screw up the whole point of the communication. And yes, I am aware this message is too long.

Moving everything to a new bank and I'm practicing what I'm gonna say when a "financial advisor" cold calls me tomorrow: "Yeah, man. I know you're trying to help, but listen... I am gonna do some crazy shit with this account, and you don't want any part of this. Trust me, you do NOT wanna be on the other end of the phone when Palantir goes down and takes me with it. Just back away slowly and let the crazy man cook."

@nikitabier @instagram Incredible hit all the way from the top rope. If all Elon's employees are on par with this guy, I'm buying more stock.

@instagram I’m glad you shared this on X, because no one would see it on Threads.

We fixed an issue that let an external party request password reset emails for some people. There was no breach of our systems and your Instagram accounts are secure. You can ignore those emails — sorry for any confusion.

Just hit 400 unique followers on Royal Road. Amazing platform

I know I'm bragging but holy shit, this is the most satisfying fight scene I've ever done. Maybe the best I'll ever do. Sorry you guys still have to wait for it, but I finally got through the difficult bits and got to the action set piece I have been setting up for three books. This is my Rocky 4.

Dear @xai please stop opening my Grok app to Imagine by default. I don't need it and it's not that great. I need to open straight to voice mode so I can ask it annoying trivia questions all day.