by Scott Howard Swain | Feb 6, 2025 | All Videos, V-AI, V-EQ, V-PEP, V-Voluntaryism, V-War |
Originally published September 2024. Scroll down for video 1080p on YouTube: See it on Odysee so you can “like” it: https://odysee.com/@Voluntary:4/2024-09-04-720p A Music Video Trip into the Near Future to see where AI goes and brings us A near future...
by Scott Howard Swain | Jan 12, 2025 | All Articles, Culture, EQ, Life, Relationships, Voluntaryism |
A zoom-able version of the above image is near the bottom of this article. Originally written in June 2022. How much time do we actually save by taking short cuts with our communication? I’m a fan of efficiency. This is why I simultaneously sympathize with and...
by Scott Howard Swain | Nov 10, 2024 | All Articles, Business, Culture, Economics, Liberty, Life, Politics, Socialism, Voluntaryism |
I bet most of us agree that there is usually a net overall loss when one person forces another person to do a thing. Sometimes, though, people “expand” the definition of force to include not doing a thing. What?! Example A person in need came to you asking...
by Scott Howard Swain | Dec 15, 2023 | All Articles, Business, EQ |
Originally published in 2019 Have you experienced times when you felt you did your best and you receive only criticism? How about feeling completely misunderstood or unappreciated when your accomplishments seem to be in plain sight? Many of us spend a significant...
by Scott Howard Swain | Nov 22, 2023 | All Videos, V-EQ, V-Humor, V-PEP |
Scroll down for video A couple arguing about what activity to do together. She wants to go out but he wants to stay in. These “wants” are strategies to get needs/values met. They choose to go below strategies to investigate the...
by Scott Howard Swain | Oct 2, 2023 | All Articles, Culture, EQ, Parenting, Relationships |
One of the most liberating ideas I’ve come to is that being excessively positive can sometimes be as destructive as being negative. “What? Are you kidding? What possible drawbacks could there be from having a positive attitude?” Of course,...
by Scott Howard Swain | Aug 20, 2023 | All Articles, Culture, EQ, Life, PEP, Practical Empathy Book, Relationships |
Following is an argument for using a form of empathy I’ve developed called the “Practical EmPath” (PEP) system, based on and similar to Nonviolent Communication (NVC) by Marshall Rosenberg, PhD. Empathy is not agreement, so you risk no loss of...
by Scott Howard Swain | Aug 27, 2022 | All Videos, V-EQ, V-Parenting, V-PEP, V-Relationships, V-Voluntaryism |
Scroll down for video On Odysee (LBRY): On DoucheTube: Looking for the article by this name? https://clearsay.net/what-does-integrity-mean-to-you-2 We all wear SOME “mask” that shifts based on who we are currently interacting with. Typically, our masks...
by Scott Howard Swain | Aug 21, 2022 | All Articles, Health, Liberty, Life, Prepping, Voluntaryism |
Began December 2021. Modified often. Price: Free This is for growth, learning, play, and connection. Not a money-making endeavor. New Location On lovely, wooden, back deck. Msg for address. Calendar: Next sessions If I don’t have other plans, I’m usually...
by Scott Howard Swain | Aug 20, 2022 | All Articles, EQ, Liberty, Parenting, Relationships, Voluntaryism |
vir-tue [ vurchoo ] 1. goodness: the quality of being morally good or righteous 2. good quality: a quality that is morally good 3. admirable quality: a quality that is good or admirable, but not necessarily in terms of morality. “If you make a choice under...
by Scott Howard Swain | Aug 1, 2022 | All Articles, Culture, EQ, Marxism, Parenting, Relationships, V-PEP |
Originally written by Scott Howard Swain in 2016. Based on his book, the "A Practical EmPath" system, and NVC. Who started it? I think most of us can agree that forcing another person to do something against their will rarely works out as we’d like to see. Yet...
by Scott Howard Swain | Jun 5, 2022 | All Articles, Business, Culture, EQ, Life, Parenting, PEP, Practical Empathy Book, Relationships |
from my book, A Practical EmPath: Rewire Your Mind. I used to think fear was the emotion underlying anger. Until a woman in one of my Practical Empathy Practice Groups said it was actually frustration. I thought about that. I tried to think of a situation where anger...
by Scott Howard Swain | May 10, 2022 | All Articles, Business, Culture, Economics, EQ, Liberty, Life, Parenting, PEP, Politics, Practical Empathy Book, Privacy, Relationships, Unschooling, Voluntaryism |
Updated. Originally written in 2014. You probably see the inequities and corruption in our current system. Do you also see the growing distance between you and other humans, in your beliefs, amount of time spent with others, and level of compassion you feel or are...
by Scott Howard Swain | Jul 15, 2021 | All Videos, V-Marxism, V-Racism, V-Voluntaryism |
From the premiere episode of Jason Whitlock’s new BlazeTV show, comes one of his patented fire-starter monologues. It’s a letter to black America that covers everything from Colin Kaepernick to George Floyd to LeBron James and the all-too-cozy relationship...
by Scott Howard Swain | Jun 28, 2020 | All Videos, V-Humor, V-Racism, V-Voluntaryism |
Video is below A satirical animated trip into an alternate future where Hillary Clinton won against Donald Trump for the Presidency and makes an appearance on the David Letterman Show. David asks hard questions and Hillary has answers. Included is her plan to equalize...
by Scott Howard Swain | Jun 9, 2020 | All Articles, Culture, EQ, Marxism, Parenting, Relationships |
Originally written by Scott Howard Swain in 2017. Not authoritarian or permissive What I’m recommending is neither “permissive parenting” or “authoritarian parenting”. It’s part of a growing movement called “peaceful...
by Scott Howard Swain | May 22, 2020 | All Articles, Liberty, Life, Privacy, Voluntaryism |
Originally written in 2017. Updated a few times since then. “But if I am doing nothing wrong then why worry?” What if privacy is something that makes you a human? While it is useful to deny snoopers such as Facebook, Google, US National Security Agency...
by Scott Howard Swain | Jul 26, 2026 | All Articles, Health, Life |
For a few years now I’ve struggled with sleep issues. I thought I tried everything. This may be the answer. I’ll edit this document once I know for sure if it works for me. Neurologist Dr. Stasha Gominak posits that the global sleep epidemic is primarily a...
by Scott Howard Swain | Jul 25, 2026 | AI, All Articles, Coding Assistants, LLM |
While OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Code keep adding useful features like sub-agent delegation to their coding assistants, no one is as far along with this as Hermes Agent where the feature has been working for weeks. The mental model, kept generic...
by Scott Howard Swain | Jul 7, 2026 | AI, All Articles, Coding Assistants, LLM |
OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Code keep adding useful features to their coding assistants, which I’m glad for because I like competition. Cool stuff! Until you dig a bit. Much like OpenClaw (the first to make a big splash way back in the dark...
by Scott Howard Swain | Jun 13, 2026 | AI, All Articles, Coding Assistants, LLM |
A lesson in agent training: One of my agents within a Hermes Agent system takes the path someone new to coding might take. Here’s how that happens and how I help it learn from the mistake. Scotter:Modify Tasky’s morning report. Add topic to watch price of...
by Scott Howard Swain | May 16, 2026 | All Articles, Culture, Health, Life, Relationships |
Peptide Name Category Biological Mechanism Primary Benefits Regulatory Status (Inferred) Safety or Usage Notes Semaglutide Metabolism and Fat Loss GLP-1 receptor agonist; mimics gut hormone Appetite suppression; manages insulin; neuroprotective; cardiovascular...
by Scott Howard Swain | May 9, 2026 | All Articles, Corruption, Creativity, Culture, EQ, Liberty, Life, Parenting, Politics, Relationships |
Over the past century, the level of violence, surveillance, and control exerted by criminal organizations calling themselves “governments” has increased to levels never before imagined. From the birth of fiat debt-based usury “currencies” by a...
by Scott Howard Swain | May 9, 2026 | All Articles, Corruption, Creativity, Culture, EQ, Liberty, Life, Parenting, Politics, Relationships |
We spend 12 to 16+ years in indoctrination boxes. They reduce our ability to think outside the box, the glowing sphere of our acceptance, purpose, autonomy, empathy, and creativity are separated and alienated. We are separated and alienated. Our connections are...
by Scott Howard Swain | May 8, 2026 | AI, All Articles, Coding Assistants, LLM |
February 2026: OpenClaw Ooh shiny! Easy install. Check. Hmmm something isn’t working right. Some time later, I got it fixed. Ooh an update! Installed. OpenClaw broken. Some time later, I got it fixed. Hearing good stuff about Hermes. Friend raving about how it...
by Scott Howard Swain | May 3, 2026 | AI, All Articles, Business, Economics, Liberty, Life, LLM, Politics, Relationships, Socialism, Voluntaryism |
“Big bad company fired employees! There should be a law against that!” Do you understand what “free market” means and why it matters? Laws and regulation to “fix” this by forcing companies to explain decisions, hire, or keep...
by Scott Howard Swain | Apr 19, 2026 | AGI, AI, All Articles, ASI, Coding Assistants, LLM |
I have a nuanced opinion on this that has some big caveats. First, I want to debunk the assumption I see most often: I think most projections of “We need to hire Junior Developers now so we can train them up so we have that knowledge/experience in 2-3...
by Scott Howard Swain | Apr 16, 2026 | AGI, AI, All Articles, Business, Economics, Liberty, LLM, Politics, Voluntaryism |
Let’s talk about AI trainers “stealing” people’s data or creations. Every human artist spends their entire life training on the world around them – the songs they heard, the books they read, the paintings they stood in front of, the faces...
by Scott Howard Swain | Apr 12, 2026 | AGI, AI, All Articles, ASI, Coding Assistants, LLM |
We’re witnessing a collapse of the entire software value chain – from how it’s built, to who builds it, to whether it needs to exist at all. Phase 1: The Deskilling of Coding (Now) AI is learning to write code so well that humans barely need to...
by Scott Howard Swain | Apr 4, 2026 | AGI, AI, All Articles, Business, Economics, Liberty, LLM, Politics, Voluntaryism |
Let’s talk about AI trainers “stealing” people’s data or creations. “I thought something, so I own it. I capitalized on it by spreading it for money, fame, or ego. How dare you copy it, modify it, use it for your purposes!? Waaaaa!”...
by Scott Howard Swain | Mar 28, 2026 | AGI, AI, All Articles, ASI, Coding Assistants, LLM |
Recursive Self-Improvement Challenges An exploration between a human an two AIs to explore ways to recursively improve AI-related systems. The conversation begins with Scotter querying his OpenClaw [2026-03-28 17:27] Scotter: Thought experiment: Recursive...
by Scott Howard Swain | Mar 26, 2026 | AI, All Articles, Coding Assistants, LLM |
Right now, on 2026-03-26, using my AgentAutoFlow + Kilo Code + VS Code setup. Let’s compare two scenarios; Human + AI working together vs Human coding an issue alone. I’ll choose a relatively small issue (something to fix or add to a project) because (a)...
by Scott Howard Swain | Mar 4, 2026 | AGI, AI, All Articles, Business, Corruption, LLM, Politics |
Energy-Based Models: Can We Judge the Whole Story Instead of One Word at a Time? Autoregressive language models are very good at finishing the next word. That is their gift and their trap. Next-token prediction is like finishing someone’s sentence at a dinner party....
