https://butterswords.com/categories/reflections/Recent content in Reflections on Butterswords | Where Words >= SwordsHugoenWed, 24 Jun 2026 09:54:49 -0700https://butterswords.com/blog/agent-usefulness/Wed, 24 Jun 2026 09:54:49 -0700https://butterswords.com/blog/agent-usefulness/<p>I recently talked with a friend and collaborator about agents and the usefulness of products such as Anthropic&rsquo;s Claude (incl. Cowork and Claude Code). We did not agree on much during the conversation, with me sounding very rigid and curmudgeonly and him taking on an optimistic view I did not expect. I respect this person a great deal, so as he continued to argue for the benefits and usefulness of these systems in his life I felt a desire to better understand where he was coming from. Towards the end of the conversation he gave me a blanket challenge:</p>https://butterswords.com/blog/five-rules-brazilian-jiu-jitsu/Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:36:27 -0700https://butterswords.com/blog/five-rules-brazilian-jiu-jitsu/<div class="bg-tlgray-200/40 border-l-4 border-blue-600 px-6 py-4 mb-8"> <strong>BLUF:</strong> Teach your children to live by simple rules and watch how they adapt them to meet the needs of life. </div> <h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2> <p>Over the fall of 2025 we exposed my son to the competitive side of of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. We did not know at the time if he would show any interest in moving from casual learning to performance-based mastery. After his first informal competition he told us he wanted to try real tournaments. I admired his bravery and realized he did not know enough about competitions to truly grasp how different it would be. So, I tried to to teach him.</p>