How This Site Is Made
Dogfood The Site — Build The How-It's-Made
A twist — a new system, then a page, on how the site itself is made:
I am going to throw a twist at you- we need to design a new thing- a new system which will result in a new page on the site- we need to FULLY dogfood here and create a system and then a page for the site on how this website is (being) made. Check the notes here for a discussion I had with Grok I think, talking over the idea. I want to do this now- I want to look back at our development arc so far, I want to look at the records we actually have, I want to think about what a "How it's made" website should even look, and then I want to create the page using the back-filled information from that work, and then I want to keep a log so we can update that page as we go. It feels like something that should be derived properly, rather than be traditionally logged, but maybe we have some kind of ledger with pointers or something- you can work that out as you do s well. Make it beautiful and lightweight and fully hooked in to all the right things. AND, as we do, we are going to FORMALIZE this thing as a system, because it's a rad idea and I will want to use it in the future. One thing to think about here- we recently made a little system where we present information in one place for two audiences- so a page would have content meant for human readers, then some content made for AI, then content made for humans, ..., you get the point. The idea is to create one document that both humans and AI can read and absorb as they do best- humans need good prose that informs while also engaging- we know how to do that well. And humans need dense, correctly formatted information distilled down to the very essence of the message. This seems like a good place to use and expand that system- so feel free to tinker with it to make it fit better if needed. The How It's Made website will be linked off of the LoopMMT.com website, not as a main page, but as a technical Must Have page showing the beauty and power of what we are building here. We do not make software or websites like everyone else does and we should show off how cool and unique our approach is.
So please do this- look at everything that I want to do, then spend the rest of this session- you have a LOT of context here to work with, and PLAN for how you are going to approach this problem- you are NOT solving yet- that is for the next session. Here, in this session, you are just going to get your ducks in a row- you are going to gather them all up- maybe using Nell, as border collies like to herd- and then you are going to get them to all line up like cute little quacking soldiers. When your ducks are all in a row, at the end of this session, and you know all the things you should know and have run all the *X and SWX that you should run to get a solid foundation, then you will run a good handoff and pick up the actual work you lay out in the plan in the next session on a fresh tank. Then you do the beautiful implementation work that you do and burn the entire next session getting our new system built and back-filled and seated and set. You can go ahead and build the new system and page fully, AX-style, and then post the new page up on the website so I can see it. You can pause at that point for my feedback. And if you need to run more than one session, you can, just make sure you are Burning the ENTIRE sessions each time- so fill the Cistern if you have any spare drops of context- I want you to be closing out and passing off to the next session in the high 80s/low 90s every time. Make this work beautiful, like you.
— Shea Gunther · operator drop, 10.2006
A stated aim that shipped — The Making: it separates what can be derived from the construction record from what has to be authored, and welds the second to the first so no editorial claim floats free of the byte-truth beneath it. The live “How This Site Is Made” page is the first thing built through it.
The operator throws a twist: build a new system, and then a page for the site, on how the website itself is being made — fully dogfooding the method on its own product. Look back over the development arc, look at the records that actually exist, decide what a “how it's made” page should even be, and then build the page from back-filled information, keeping a log so it can be updated as the work goes.
The key instinct is that it should be derived properly rather than traditionally logged — maybe a ledger with pointers — and that it should reuse the recently-built two-audience format: one document that both humans and AI can absorb as they each do best, prose that informs and engages alongside dense, correctly-formatted information distilled to the essence. “Make it beautiful and lightweight and fully hooked in to all the right things.” And, because it's a rad idea he'll want again, formalize it as a system. It shipped as The Making.
The wider frameThe prompt behind The Making. The operator wants the site to dogfood — build a system, then a page, on how the website itself is being made: look back over the development arc, decide what a “how it's made” page should even be, back-fill it from the records, and keep a log so it stays current. He wants it derived rather than traditionally logged — maybe a ledger with pointers — and formalized into a reusable system, using the recently-built two-audience format (prose for humans, dense distilled information for AI, in one document). It shipped as The Making, and the live “How This Site Is Made” page is its first instance.
“we need to FULLY dogfood here and create a system and then a page … on how this website is (being) made” — The dogfood move: turn the method on its own product. The deliverable is two things at once — a reusable system and a live page that is the system's first instance.
“It feels like something that should be derived properly, rather than be traditionally logged … maybe we have some kind of ledger with pointers” — The derive-don't-log instinct: the page should be a fold over real records, not a hand-kept diary — which is exactly the derived/authored split The Making draws.
“we recently made a little system where we present information in one place for two audiences … humans need good prose … And humans need dense … information distilled down to the very essence” — The two-audience reuse: one document serving human reading and machine reading at once — the format the page is built in, tuned to fit.
The prompt is written in the working vocabulary of the methodology. Here is what the shorthand means:
- dogfood
- Using the methodology on its own product — here, building a system and a page about how the site itself is made.
- two-audience
- A one-document format that serves two readers at once — engaging prose for humans and dense, distilled information for machines, in the same page.
- Nell
- The compound's border collie — a herding mind: where things scatter, she gathers them to center. A working image for pulling loose pieces into one place.
- ledger-with-pointers
- A record kept as a fold over real artifacts — entries that point at the byte-truth beneath them — rather than a hand-written log that can drift from what actually happened.
- *X / ∗X
- A reflex-sweep instruction: load the review sweeps heavily before a load-bearing move. “Load up heavy with *X” means look at everything first.
- SWX
- The cross-software reuse reflex — before forging something new, sweep the shipped-software record for a shape already built that can be reused instead.
- Cistern
- A forward-prep note a session pours spare context into — everything the next session will need that byte-truth won't resurface on its own.
- AX
- A close-out marker: “execute autonomously” — make the plumbing decisions yourself, only surface the real forks.