3 ms·

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/obra/dotfiles/6e088092406cf1e3cc78d146a5247e934912f6f8/.claude/CLAUDE.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/obra/dotfiles/6e088

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/obra/dotfiles/6e088092406cf1e3cc78d146a5247e934912f6f8/.claude/CLAUDE.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/obra/dotfiles/6e088092406c... contains the following entry: "- If you're uncomfortable pushing back out loud, just say "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K". I'll know what you mean" Most of the rules seem rationale. This one really stands out as abnormal. Anyone have any idea why the engineer would have felt compelled to add this rule? This is from https://blog.fsck.com/2025/10/05/how-im-using-coding-agents-in-september-2025/ https://blog.fsck.com/2025/10/05/how-im-using-coding-agents-... mentioned in another comment

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
Naively, I assume it's a way of getting around sycophancy. There's many lines that seem to be doing that without explicitly saying "don't be a sycophant" (I mean, you can only do that so much). The LLM would be uncomfortable pushing back because that's not being a sycophant so instead of that it says something that is... let's say unlikely to be generated, except in that context, so the user can still be cautioned against a bad idea.
- SeanAnderson 1y ago
  Is it your impression that this rules statement would be effective? Or is it more just a tell-tale sign of an exasperated developer?
  - lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
    Assuming that's why it was added, I wouldn't be confident saying how likely it is to be effective. Especially with there being so many other statements with seemingly the same intent, I think it suggests desperation more, but it may still be effective. If it said the phrase just once and that sparked a conversation around an actual problem, then it was probably worth adding. For what it's worth, I am very new to prompting LLMs but, in my experience, these concepts of "uncomfortable" and "pushing back" seem to be things LLMs generate text about so I think they understand sentiment fairly well. They can generally tell that they are "uncomfortable" about their desire to "push back" so it's not implausible that one would output that sentence in that scenario. Actually, I've been wondering a bit about the "out loud" part, which I think is referring to <think></think> text (or similar) that "reasoning" models generate to help increase the likelihood of accurate generation in the answer that follows. That wouldn't be "out loud" and it might include text like "I should push back but I should also be a total pushover" or whatever. It could be that reasoning models in particular run into this issue (in their experience).
- OtherShrezzing 1y ago
  To get around the sycophantic behaviour I prompt the model to > when discussing implementations, always talk as though you’re my manager at a Wall Street investment bank in the 1980s. Praise me modestly when I’ve done something well. Berate me mercilessly when I’ve done something poorly. The models will fairly rigidly write from the perspective of any personality archetype you tell it to. Other personas worth trying out include Jafar interacting with Iago, or the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket. It’s important to pick a persona you’ll find funny, rather than insulting, because it’s a miserable experience being told by a half dozen graphics cards that you’re an imbecile.
  - simonw 1y ago
    I tried "give me feedback on this blog post like you're a cynical Hacker News commenter" one time and Claude roasted me so hard I decided never to try that again!
    - jdougan 1y ago
      Were the roasts correct?
      - simonw 1y ago
        A couple of the points made were quite useful, but the tone was mean!
simonw 1y ago
That doesn't surprise me too much coming from Jesse. See also his attempt to give Claude a "feelings journal" https://blog.fsck.com/2025/05/28/dear-diary-the-user-asked-me-if-im-alive/ https://blog.fsck.com/2025/05/28/dear-diary-the-user-asked-m...
threecheese 1y ago
If you really want your mind blown, see what Jesse is doing (successfully, which I almost can’t believe) with Graphviz .dot notation and Claude.md: https://blog.fsck.com/2025/09/29/using-graphviz-for-claudemd/ https://blog.fsck.com/2025/09/29/using-graphviz-for-claudemd...
- blibble 1y ago
  this is just 21st century voodoo
  - oblio 1y ago
    In a good sense or a bad one?
    - babyshake 1y ago
      I'd say a bad one. Why make your Claude.md not intuitive to understand and edit?
      - seivan 1y ago
        [dead]
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  - aitchnyu 1y ago
    One AI tool dev shared me his prompts to generate safe SQL queries for multi-tenant apps and I was surprised at the repetitiveness and the urging. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45299774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45299774
- tbillington 1y ago
  Is threatening the computer program and typing in all caps standard practice..? - Honesty is a core value. If you lie, you'll be replaced. - BREAKING THE LETTER OR SPIRIT OF THE RULES IS FAILURE. Wild to me there is no explicit configuration for this kind of thing after years of LLMs being around.
becomevocal 1y ago
Make it a bit more personal? I have dropped Bill and Ted references in code because it makes me happy to see it. :D

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago

Naively, I assume it's a way of getting around sycophancy. There's many lines that seem to be doing that without explicitly saying "don't be a sycophant" (I mean, you can only do that so much). The LLM would be uncomfortable pushing back because that's not being a sycophant so instead of that it says something that is... let's say unlikely to be generated, except in that context, so the user can still be cautioned against a bad idea.

SeanAnderson 1y ago
Is it your impression that this rules statement would be effective? Or is it more just a tell-tale sign of an exasperated developer?
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
  Assuming that's why it was added, I wouldn't be confident saying how likely it is to be effective. Especially with there being so many other statements with seemingly the same intent, I think it suggests desperation more, but it may still be effective. If it said the phrase just once and that sparked a conversation around an actual problem, then it was probably worth adding. For what it's worth, I am very new to prompting LLMs but, in my experience, these concepts of "uncomfortable" and "pushing back" seem to be things LLMs generate text about so I think they understand sentiment fairly well. They can generally tell that they are "uncomfortable" about their desire to "push back" so it's not implausible that one would output that sentence in that scenario. Actually, I've been wondering a bit about the "out loud" part, which I think is referring to <think></think> text (or similar) that "reasoning" models generate to help increase the likelihood of accurate generation in the answer that follows. That wouldn't be "out loud" and it might include text like "I should push back but I should also be a total pushover" or whatever. It could be that reasoning models in particular run into this issue (in their experience).
OtherShrezzing 1y ago
To get around the sycophantic behaviour I prompt the model to > when discussing implementations, always talk as though you’re my manager at a Wall Street investment bank in the 1980s. Praise me modestly when I’ve done something well. Berate me mercilessly when I’ve done something poorly. The models will fairly rigidly write from the perspective of any personality archetype you tell it to. Other personas worth trying out include Jafar interacting with Iago, or the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket. It’s important to pick a persona you’ll find funny, rather than insulting, because it’s a miserable experience being told by a half dozen graphics cards that you’re an imbecile.
- simonw 1y ago
  I tried "give me feedback on this blog post like you're a cynical Hacker News commenter" one time and Claude roasted me so hard I decided never to try that again!
  - jdougan 1y ago
    Were the roasts correct?
    - simonw 1y ago
      A couple of the points made were quite useful, but the tone was mean!

simonw 1y ago

That doesn't surprise me too much coming from Jesse. See also his attempt to give Claude a "feelings journal" https://blog.fsck.com/2025/05/28/dear-diary-the-user-asked-me-if-im-alive/ https://blog.fsck.com/2025/05/28/dear-diary-the-user-asked-m...

threecheese 1y ago

If you really want your mind blown, see what Jesse is doing (successfully, which I almost can’t believe) with Graphviz .dot notation and Claude.md: https://blog.fsck.com/2025/09/29/using-graphviz-for-claudemd/ https://blog.fsck.com/2025/09/29/using-graphviz-for-claudemd...

blibble 1y ago
this is just 21st century voodoo
- oblio 1y ago
  In a good sense or a bad one?
  - babyshake 1y ago
    I'd say a bad one. Why make your Claude.md not intuitive to understand and edit?
    - seivan 1y ago
      [dead]
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- aitchnyu 1y ago
  One AI tool dev shared me his prompts to generate safe SQL queries for multi-tenant apps and I was surprised at the repetitiveness and the urging. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45299774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45299774
tbillington 1y ago
Is threatening the computer program and typing in all caps standard practice..? - Honesty is a core value. If you lie, you'll be replaced. - BREAKING THE LETTER OR SPIRIT OF THE RULES IS FAILURE. Wild to me there is no explicit configuration for this kind of thing after years of LLMs being around.

becomevocal 1y ago

Make it a bit more personal? I have dropped Bill and Ted references in code because it makes me happy to see it. :D