John Stokvis

March 31, 2026

Decompression

The tao which can be told is not the eternal Tao.
- Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching

All models are wrong but some are useful.
- George E. P. Box, Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces

I am convinced that about one-half the money I spend for advertising is wasted, but I have never been able to decide which half.
- John Wannamaker

Try this

Pick a topic or insight that you understand deeply:
  • Give the LLM a minimal statement about it. A sentence or two is enough.
  • End with “Do you understand what I’m saying here?”

When it fails to understand or comes back with some superficial understanding (it will), correct it with the minimum needed. Try not to give it the answer. Do the opposite of “loading it up with context.” Give it no context.

Say:
  • “No”
  • “Wrong.”
  • Quote it back to itself and write “Did I actually say that?”
  • “That’s right. Why?”

Watch where it smooths, where it assumes, where it elides, where it gets lost, where it smoothes over nuance, where it misinterprets, where it intuits the right direction.

As it stumbles around, give it pointers, but don’t give it the answer.

See if it can reach the truth on its own.

What you’ll find

I’m not going to tell you. I want you to try it.












Go do it.





















Seriously. Try it. See what happens.

I’m curious what happens when you do it.
































Maybe I’ll write about what happens at some point and why.

Maybe not.

I don’t know.










































Go do it.


[IDUNA] 
Come, my darling, homeward bound 

[ELSA] 
I am found 

[ELSA & IDUNA] 
Show yourself, 
step into your power 
Grow yourself 
into something new 

[IDUNA] 
You are the one you've been waiting for 

[ELSA & IDUNA] 
All of my life (All of your life)

- “Show Yourself,” Frozen 2