JM

Field Notes

Field Notes is an ongoing technical journal documenting work at the intersection of creative technology applications, scientific communication, media systems, AI workflows, and digital infrastructure.

Notes
14
Keywords
38
Longest read
10 min
Last published
Aug 5, 2026

14 notes

14 Dispatches from the Argument FactoryThis project began as a joke about making Sam Altman and Dario Amodei fight as badly coordinated robot boxers, but it quickly turned into something much more serious: an experiment in open models, local AI, comparative retrieval, and… data-and-classification · automation · local-first · media-and-production5 min 13 OpenAI Build Week: What Would You Ask Sam?OpenAI emailed me about Build Week with four days left, which meant choosing between several questionable Codex projects and figuring out how to make a meaningful addition to SamNav —an application that was already built, deployed,… applied-ai · web-development · project/samnav · semantic-search4 min 12 The House Always EatsSandwich Bets starts with a stupid premise and follows it to its logical conclusion: what if the only safe wager left is lunch? Sandwich Bets becomes a napkin ledger turned into software: a way to remember the terms, preserve the… culture-and-critique · web-development · project/sandwich-bets · social-software9 min 11 Navigation for the End TimesSamNav is a tiny independent index for Sam Altman’s blog, built because the posts are worth reading but the navigation is almost comically minimal. It adds search, topics, reading paths, related posts, and an admittedly dry Navigation… web-development · project/samnav · web-design · classification6 min 10 Expertise Without PermissionA working-class reflection on AI, expertise, and gatekeeping. The piece argues that expertise is real, but access to it has always been shaped by class, credentials, and permission. AI disrupts that arrangement by letting more people… culture-and-critique · applied-ai · labor-and-class · craft9 min 09 A Machine for Cross-Examining My GreedSignal Desk is a local AI-powered investment research desk I built precisely because I don’t know enough about investing to trust my own instincts. It turns scattered curiosity about AI companies, infrastructure, robotics, sensors,… applied-ai · web-development · project/signal-desk · responsible-web6 min 08 Before the Dream Becomes a StoryThis essay argues that dreams are often lost because we ask them to become stories too soon. In the fragile space after waking, dream memory rarely arrives as narrative; it appears as fragments: a color, a room, a body sensation, a… language-and-mind · dreams · memory · symbolic-language10 min 07 The Ghost SwitcherPart three closes the series by moving from prototype to stakes: a real venue-network failure in London where the remote producer was disconnected, the stream dropped, and the online audience was left staring into the void. From that… media-and-production · applied-ai · project/autonomous-producer · live-production10 min 06 The Show Has a SpinePart two follows the project from portable livestream workflow into live system architecture, opening with a makeshift hotel-room lab in Killarney where OBS, ATEM control, testing sources, and early automation experiments began… media-and-production · applied-ai · project/autonomous-producer · live-production9 min 05 Notes on the Yellow PelicanPart one of this three-part series traces Autonomous Producer back to its practical origin: portable livestream kits built as conferences returned in person while online access remained essential. What began as yellow cases, hand-cut… media-and-production · applied-ai · project/autonomous-producer · live-production7 min 04 Rebuilding My Portfolio With AI, Static HTML, and Stubborn TasteThe original version of my portfolio was built in 2021 from downloaded themes, hand-edited HTML, layered CSS overrides, and an unreasonable number of animated GIFs. The visual identity still felt right, but the underlying structure… web-development · applied-ai · project/portfolio-rebuild · web-design10 min 03 Signal to Strategy: From Scientific Activity to Demand IntelligenceScientific activity is not the same thing as scientific demand. This article argues that publications, grants, registrations, abstracts, and engagement metrics only become strategically useful when interpreted together, classified… data-and-classification · project/signal-to-strategy · business-intelligence · conference-planning3 min 02 Signal to Strategy: Why Scientific Classification is More than a Labeling ExerciseScientific classification is more than tagging content after the fact. This article argues that classification should function as an interpretive layer inside the data architecture, giving messy scientific and operational records a… data-and-classification · project/signal-to-strategy · business-intelligence · conference-planning3 min 01 Signal to Strategy: Why Scientific Demand is Difficult to DetectScientific demand is difficult to detect because it rarely appears as a single clean metric. By the time it shows up in registrations, abstracts, sponsor interest, or meeting-planning conversations, the most useful window for… data-and-classification · project/signal-to-strategy · business-intelligence · conference-planning3 min