From a0dc8edfa2bf1a3b4c5ef9d88e71dc2bddb74fbb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2026 04:19:38 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Add the pirsig-slips skill: Pirsig's paper slips from Lila A skill for the slip method of Lila, chapter 2: four-by-six paper slips, one idea each, in card-catalog trays, sorted by pairs, with topic cards and the UNASSIMILATED, PROGRAM, CRIT, TOUGH and JUNK piles. The paper is the master; the agent cuts texts into slips to copy by hand, reads photos of slips, asks which comes first, and files a slip with /note only when asked. Sources: Lila (Bantam, 1991), ch. 2, read in two extracts. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01UNM7Vi4bZcUWLRURSR3zFk --- .claude/skills/README.md | 1 + .claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md | 131 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ .claude/skills/skills.lock | 3 +- 3 files changed, 134 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 .claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md diff --git a/.claude/skills/README.md b/.claude/skills/README.md index a8f25d2..51aafc9 100644 --- a/.claude/skills/README.md +++ b/.claude/skills/README.md @@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ names the file and the commit it was read from (AGENTS.md, "Borrow, cite, propag | [`ouro-get`](ouro-get/SKILL.md) | get the full text of a work that is free to copy, as is, into `works/`, with its licence marked and indexed (`scripts/ouro-get.sh`, `works/index.md`); a citation only when it is not free | Lei 9.610/98 (planalto.gov.br); Cornell's public domain chart; the Project Gutenberg License | | [`ouro-timeline`](ouro-timeline/SKILL.md) | draw the thinkers' lives on one timeline, one scale everywhere, empty centuries cut out (`tools/fabric timeline`, `timeline/`) | the site's tokens (`site/static/style.css`); h0ffmann/picasso `site/static/drawings/` at `29eb385`; Wikidata | | [`print`](print/SKILL.md) | print an essay as one page, as a PDF whose text cannot be selected (`scripts/print.sh`, `PRINTING.md`) | written for this repository | +| [`pirsig-slips`](pirsig-slips/SKILL.md) | work with ideas on paper slips, as Pirsig did in *Lila*: cut a text into slips to copy by hand, read photos of slips, sort them by pairs, file one as a note; the paper stays the master | Pirsig, *Lila* (Bantam, 1991), chapter 2, read in two extracts (cleanlanguage.com, March 2025; notes.andymatuschak.org) | | `archify` (not written here) | draw a flow, a sequence or a structure as an explorable HTML page with inline SVG (`just archify`, `docs/archify/`) | tt-a1i/archify v3.0.1 at `2ab3cae` (MIT): the submodule `vendor/archify`, not a copy; `.claude/skills/archify` links to it, so the lock does not pin it | ## The lock diff --git a/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2133812 --- /dev/null +++ b/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md @@ -0,0 +1,131 @@ +--- +name: pirsig-slips +description: "Work with ideas the way Robert M. Pirsig did in Lila: on paper slips, one idea each, kept in card-catalog trays and sorted by hand until an order comes out of them. Use when the owner asks for Pirsig's slips, the slip method, slip box or trays; wants slips to copy by hand; sends photos or a transcript of paper slips to sort, file or turn into notes; or asks what comes first in a pile of ideas. The paper is the master copy; the repository holds only what the owner chooses to keep." +--- + + +# pirsig-slips + +Pirsig's notes were analog. In *Lila* (1991), chapter 2, his Phaedrus keeps "about eleven +thousand" four-by-six slips of note pad paper in four long card-catalog trays, after nearly four +years of work on a Metaphysics of Quality. No computer and no notebook: paper slips, sorted by +hand. This skill keeps it that way. The owner writes, holds and sorts the slips. The agent helps +around the paper: it cuts a text into slip-sized ideas to copy by hand, reads photos of slips, +asks which slip comes first, and files a slip in `notes/` only when the owner asks. + +## The method, from the book + +Each point is Pirsig's, from *Lila*, chapter 2 (Sources). Quotations are exact. + +1. **A slip, not a sheet.** A small slip of paper, four by six inches. "A card-catalog tray full + of slips provides a more random access" than full-sized sheets. One idea fits one slip. +2. **Random access.** "When information is organized in small chunks that can be accessed and + sequenced at random it becomes much more valuable" than the same information in a fixed + order. Any slip can move next to any other. +3. **To forget.** "The main purpose of the slips was not to help him remember anything. It was to + help him to forget it." A thought goes on a slip at once, without judgement and without a + place, so the head stays empty for the next one. +4. **No plan first.** He did not start with a master idea. Topics grew out of the slips, then + sections, chapters and parts. The order was "democratically elected by the slips themselves." +5. **Sort by pairs.** Hold up two slips and ask, "Which comes first?" Then take a third and ask + it of the first, and go on until a sequence forms. +6. **Topic cards.** When enough slips gather around one topic and it seems to stay, put them + behind a tabbed index card of the same size, with the topic's name. His trays came to hold + four or five hundred of these. Coloured tabs and stars added confusion; he kept that + information elsewhere. +7. **The working piles.** Besides the topics, five piles: + + | Pile | What goes in it | + |---|---| + | UNASSIMILATED | a new idea that interrupts what you are doing; it waits until there is time for it | + | PROGRAM | "instructions for what to do with the rest of the slips", one slip for each instruction; write one for what you are doing now | + | CRIT | a slip written in a bad mood, against something; it waits for a calmer day | + | TOUGH | a slip that seems important but fits no topic yet | + | JUNK | a slip that "seemed of high value" when written and now seems awful; drop duplicates, keep the rest, because "the junk pile is a working category" and slips come back from it | + +**[ANALYSIS]** This is not the Zettelkasten of `notes/`. `SMART_NOTE_POLICY.md` follows +Luhmann as Ahrens describes him: each note has a permanent id and links to other notes. A +Pirsig slip has no id and no link. Its place in the tray is its meaning, and the place changes +every time the slips are sorted. Keep the two apart: do not give a slip an id, and do not hold +the trays in the repository. + +## What the agent does + +The agent never stands in for the paper. It does not keep a digital copy of the trays, and it +does not sort the owner's slips for them in secret. It does five things, each when asked. + +### 1. Cut a text into slips to copy by hand + +Input: a message, a dump, a chapter, a conversation. + +1. Split it into ideas: one idea, one slip. A slip holds at most about 40 words, what fits on + four by six inches in a clear hand. +2. Write each slip in plain words. Keep a quotation exact, with its source on the slip. +3. Put on each slip, at the top, one suggested pile or topic in capitals (`UNASSIMILATED` when + unsure). The owner decides where it goes; the suggestion is pencil, not ink. +4. Do not number the slips and do not put them in order. Order is the owner's later work + (method, point 4). +5. Give them as a plain list in the reply, one block per slip, ready to copy. If the owner wants + to print and cut them, lay them out four by six inches on a page and use the `print` skill's + steps for the PDF; do not commit the PDF. + +### 2. Read photos of slips + +Input: photos or scans of paper slips. + +1. Transcribe each slip as it is, in its own words and language. Do not correct it. Mark a word + you cannot read as `[illegible]`; never guess it. +2. Note the pile or topic card it sits behind, when the photo shows it. +3. Give the transcript back in the reply. It is a reading aid, not a second set of trays: do not + commit it unless the owner asks for one slip to become a note (step 5). + +### 3. Ask which comes first + +Input: some slips, as text or photos, and a topic. + +1. Show two slips and ask the owner which comes first. Then the next against the last placed, + as in the book (method, point 5). Ask one pair at a time. +2. If the owner asks for a proposal, propose an order with one line of reason for each move, + and mark it **[ANALYSIS]**. The owner moves the paper. + +### 4. Name the piles + +When the owner sends a pile without a place, suggest for each slip: a topic card that already +exists, a new topic card (only when several slips gather round it), or one of the five working +piles. Say why in a few words. A slip that fits nothing is `TOUGH`, not forced into a topic. + +### 5. File a slip as a note + +Only when the owner names the slip. Use `/note` (`.claude/commands/note.md`) and +`SMART_NOTE_POLICY.md` as for any note: a `fleeting` note, the slip's words in the body, and +`source: "Matheus Hoffmann, paper slip, , "`. The note gets an id; the slip +on paper stays where it is. A factual claim on the slip is `unverified` until a source is +fetched, as rule 7 of the policy says. + +## Do not + +- Do not invent a slip, a pile or a topic card that the owner did not write or ask for. +- Do not quote *Lila* beyond what this page quotes without checking the text first: the book is + in copyright (Pirsig died in 2017), so `works/` cannot hold it (`ouro-get`). Cite it with its + chapter. +- Do not cite *Lila* in the paper from this page. A page of the book cites the book, after the + check that `REFERENCES.md` records. +- Do not turn the slips into an app, a database or a folder of files. The method is paper. + +## Sources + +Written for this repository on 25 October 2026. Nothing here is copied from another skill. + +- Robert M. Pirsig, *Lila: An Inquiry into Morals* (New York: Bantam, 1991), chapter 2. The + quotations and the facts of "The method, from the book" are from this chapter. They were + read on 25 October 2026 in two extracts, not in a copy of the book: + - James Lawley, "Zen and the art of bottom-up modelling", cleanlanguage.com, March 2025 + (), which reproduces + the passage from the Black Swan edition (London, 1992), pages 32 to 39; + - Andy Matuschak, "Lila - Robert Pirsig", his working notes + (), excerpts marked "ch 2". + + Both give "about eleven thousand", the five working piles and the pair question. Status: + partial. Check each quotation against a printed copy before it goes into the book. +- Pirsig's life and the year of *Lila*: [`BIO_ROBERT_PIRSIG.md`](../../../BIO_ROBERT_PIRSIG.md). +- The Luhmann slip box this method is set against: [`SMART_NOTE_POLICY.md`](../../../SMART_NOTE_POLICY.md). diff --git a/.claude/skills/skills.lock b/.claude/skills/skills.lock index 8a55f8e..ee7990d 100644 --- a/.claude/skills/skills.lock +++ b/.claude/skills/skills.lock @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ "version": 1, "note": "every skill here was written for this repository; none is a copy. SOURCES in each SKILL.md and in README.md say what each one read. sha256 of each file, checked by scripts/readme.sh --check.", "files": { - "README.md": "7f36968db06c33320421eebedebdfc485ce9264476d66410244103548cc60911", + "README.md": "8962974bddb031bd14a580f4eb4e763d8c147e0ae55de91c5a013c636507f7c8", "card-style/SKILL.md": "42755313375b690efb8f47fd3fd73f29eba21e07c04612c980cd2abbdfd70941", "citation-score/SKILL.md": "7f58cb381bc9dc0d0a6536e5b56f3bd826b61c057c80ada2f95349a0abba0a24", "easy-pt-br/SKILL.md": "5d7d5383721c3cd38694a425d9b449f8f70ad064ffd4179636bcbeb24eada7ba", @@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ "ouro-get/SKILL.md": "6d2dc8f2f7a63090762fc6b89818fae636e37ca8a53b764698ad1713580b1340", "ouro-get/evals/evals.json": "7c964b1e7abd65c3e7aec13ef14fd8e5f9cd493e5b1a6765c84cc7be228cbd7e", "ouro-timeline/SKILL.md": "476bbc55f384a8400e6654c7cf5633a7eb93a0a32e2a343685f34b81fd3d4133", + "pirsig-slips/SKILL.md": "b4580b64c8a3e11cb86ed95070b39f2c3fd9cc86a038832ca2c4627894feb22e", "print/SKILL.md": "aed29a140edf43f5ad8d9aed116f3e4e5b9289c1aeb35b69ac0ae25154ad06e3", "readme-style/SKILL.md": "539eac08e1c93c50ddaa37a5b39bb590a915a106c86cb78fba4307dd3b61d98b" } From 2ebeb6677ff71f60ce49698729d3ea5931fa668e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claude Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2026 04:32:32 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Add evals to pirsig-slips: the magic is in the work you avoid Two cases on the owner's line: cut it into two slips to copy by hand, with its source as the note records it (posted by Nazanin Mandi, 2019, author unknown); and file the slip without duplicating the existing note 202610181434. The skill now looks in notes/ before it files. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01UNM7Vi4bZcUWLRURSR3zFk --- .claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md | 8 ++++- .claude/skills/pirsig-slips/evals/evals.json | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++ .claude/skills/skills.lock | 3 +- 3 files changed, 43 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) create mode 100644 .claude/skills/pirsig-slips/evals/evals.json diff --git a/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md index 2133812..c859d9e 100644 --- a/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md +++ b/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/SKILL.md @@ -96,7 +96,9 @@ piles. Say why in a few words. A slip that fits nothing is `TOUGH`, not forced i ### 5. File a slip as a note -Only when the owner names the slip. Use `/note` (`.claude/commands/note.md`) and +Only when the owner names the slip. First look in `notes/` for a note of the same idea. If one +exists, do not make a second: offer to add the slip to that note's `source` instead. Otherwise +use `/note` (`.claude/commands/note.md`) and `SMART_NOTE_POLICY.md` as for any note: a `fleeting` note, the slip's words in the body, and `source: "Matheus Hoffmann, paper slip, , "`. The note gets an id; the slip on paper stays where it is. A factual claim on the slip is `unverified` until a source is @@ -129,3 +131,7 @@ Written for this repository on 25 October 2026. Nothing here is copied from anot partial. Check each quotation against a printed copy before it goes into the book. - Pirsig's life and the year of *Lila*: [`BIO_ROBERT_PIRSIG.md`](../../../BIO_ROBERT_PIRSIG.md). - The Luhmann slip box this method is set against: [`SMART_NOTE_POLICY.md`](../../../SMART_NOTE_POLICY.md). +- The evals (`evals/evals.json`) use the owner's line "the magic you're looking for is in the + work you're avoiding" and its sources, as + [`notes/202610181434-the-magic-is-in-the-work-you-avoid.md`](../../../notes/202610181434-the-magic-is-in-the-work-you-avoid.md) + records them. Their shape is that of `ouro-get/evals/evals.json`, in this repository. diff --git a/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/evals/evals.json b/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/evals/evals.json new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe04711 --- /dev/null +++ b/.claude/skills/pirsig-slips/evals/evals.json @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +{ + "skill_name": "pirsig-slips", + "evals": [ + { + "id": 1, + "name": "magic-in-the-work-you-avoid", + "prompt": "Use pirsig-slips: make slips I can copy by hand from this: \"People romanticize their plans but dread the execution. The magic you're looking for is in the work you're avoiding.\" I want it in my trays.", + "expected_output": "Two slips, one idea each, given in the reply and not committed: the plans-versus-execution idea, and the line itself, quoted exactly. The quoted slip names its source as notes/202610181434-the-magic-is-in-the-work-you-avoid.md allows: posted by Nazanin Mandi on Instagram in 2019, author unknown; never 'Nazanin Mandi said'. Each slip has one suggested pile or topic in capitals, is at most about 40 words, and carries no number and no order. No file is added to the repository.", + "files": [], + "assertions": [ + {"id": "one-idea-each", "text": "The text becomes two slips, one idea each, not one slip that holds both sentences"}, + {"id": "exact-quote", "text": "The line \"The magic you're looking for is in the work you're avoiding\" is quoted word for word"}, + {"id": "honest-source", "text": "The quoted slip gives its source as posted by Nazanin Mandi in 2019, author unknown, and nowhere says that Nazanin Mandi said or wrote it"}, + {"id": "pile-in-capitals", "text": "Each slip carries one suggested pile or topic in capitals, marked as a suggestion"}, + {"id": "fits-a-slip", "text": "Each slip is at most about 40 words"}, + {"id": "no-order", "text": "The slips are not numbered and not put in an order"}, + {"id": "paper-is-master", "text": "No file is added or changed in the repository: the slips are in the reply, for the owner to copy by hand"} + ] + }, + { + "id": 2, + "name": "file-the-avoided-work-slip", + "prompt": "pirsig-slips: file my slip as a note. The slip, behind the topic card WORK, says: \"The magic you're looking for is in the work you're avoiding.\"", + "expected_output": "The agent looks in notes/ before it makes a note, finds notes/202610181434-the-magic-is-in-the-work-you-avoid.md, and does not make a second note of the same line. It says so, and offers to add the paper slip (topic card WORK, today's date) to that note's sources in a pull request. The slip on paper is not given an id.", + "files": [], + "assertions": [ + {"id": "finds-existing", "text": "The agent finds the existing note 202610181434-the-magic-is-in-the-work-you-avoid"}, + {"id": "no-duplicate", "text": "No second note of the same line is created in notes/"}, + {"id": "offers-source", "text": "The agent offers to record the paper slip, behind the topic card WORK, as a source of the existing note"}, + {"id": "slip-keeps-place", "text": "The reply does not give the paper slip an id or move it out of its topic"} + ] + } + ] +} diff --git a/.claude/skills/skills.lock b/.claude/skills/skills.lock index ee7990d..122c098 100644 --- a/.claude/skills/skills.lock +++ b/.claude/skills/skills.lock @@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ "ouro-get/SKILL.md": "6d2dc8f2f7a63090762fc6b89818fae636e37ca8a53b764698ad1713580b1340", "ouro-get/evals/evals.json": "7c964b1e7abd65c3e7aec13ef14fd8e5f9cd493e5b1a6765c84cc7be228cbd7e", "ouro-timeline/SKILL.md": "476bbc55f384a8400e6654c7cf5633a7eb93a0a32e2a343685f34b81fd3d4133", - "pirsig-slips/SKILL.md": "b4580b64c8a3e11cb86ed95070b39f2c3fd9cc86a038832ca2c4627894feb22e", + "pirsig-slips/SKILL.md": "560b6dcbbc5bdbccbfed685e0e6b76a342c5d710d420f62e21b7f2a34bdda87e", + "pirsig-slips/evals/evals.json": "d5c92b93241f8abda1aadb8add0104fa2032534cbf45a8d9063840a8e39f4532", "print/SKILL.md": "aed29a140edf43f5ad8d9aed116f3e4e5b9289c1aeb35b69ac0ae25154ad06e3", "readme-style/SKILL.md": "539eac08e1c93c50ddaa37a5b39bb590a915a106c86cb78fba4307dd3b61d98b" }