zkash
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zkash
@asyncakash
moving fast and breaking things @stardotfun | 🦀 | prev: @availproject, @puffer_finance, @class_lambda, topology | alum @iitroorkee







I've never felt this much behind as a programmer. The profession is being dramatically refactored as the bits contributed by the programmer are increasingly sparse and between. I have a sense that I could be 10X more powerful if I just properly string together what has become available over the last ~year and a failure to claim the boost feels decidedly like skill issue. There's a new programmable layer of abstraction to master (in addition to the usual layers below) involving agents, subagents, their prompts, contexts, memory, modes, permissions, tools, plugins, skills, hooks, MCP, LSP, slash commands, workflows, IDE integrations, and a need to build an all-encompassing mental model for strengths and pitfalls of fundamentally stochastic, fallible, unintelligible and changing entities suddenly intermingled with what used to be good old fashioned engineering. Clearly some powerful alien tool was handed around except it comes with no manual and everyone has to figure out how to hold it and operate it, while the resulting magnitude 9 earthquake is rocking the profession. Roll up your sleeves to not fall behind.


It’s actually a good question; the difference is subtle but structural. I usually frame it like this: AGENTS[.]md acts as the declarative context. You write this for every repo (and nested directories) to define the project structure, persona, and coding rules. Skills are the functional protocols. They provide the agent with modular capabilities like advanced tool-use and multi-step chaining that are dynamically discovered only when needed. If AGENTS[.]md defines the identity and environment (the body), Skills provide the specialized toolset (the capabilities) used to execute tasks autonomously.




Encrypted messaging, like @signalapp, is critical for preserving our digital privacy. Two important next steps for the space are (i) permissionless account creation and (ii) metadata privacy. @session_app and @SimpleXChat are two messaging apps pushing these directions forward. For this reason I've donated 128 ETH to each. Addresses available on their websites if you wish to follow on: getsession.org simplex.chat But also, actually download and use them! Neither of the two are perfect pieces of software, they have a way to go to get to truly optimal user experience and security. Strong metadata privacy requires decentralization, decentralization is hard, users expecting multi-device support makes everything harder. Sybil / DoS resistance, both in the message routing network and on the user side (without forcing phone number dependence) adds further difficulty. These problems need more eyes on them. I wish all teams working on these important problems best of luck.








