I did an experiment on myself. I built multiple Agentic systems to interact with my daily routine and intentionally created them with a different mindset but having the same goals and functionality. If you read my previous post on having AI build a system via goal-based vs. Specification-based, I left something out; I built twin systems with different personalities.  

Open Claw has been gotten a lot of hype, and it has become AI’s VisiCalc (killer application) and playing with it has been fun, educational, frustrating and time consuming. I am not going to jump on the hype about that I am making millions of dollars using it, nor sell you that it is going to make you rich, but what I will say it gave LLMs that shot in the arm it needed to show people a tool that was not just a chat bot. 

I asked it to make me a better person and let it guide me and build me tools and interactions to help myself. But while doing it, I also built a home-grown version of Open Claw, due to security concerns etc. I also wanted to play around with the notion that a system can be sycophantic or dry. The open claw would have a personality, and use AI to have conversation with me, the home grown will use direct commands, and only return responses like “logged” or noted etc. No conversation, no personality it was all about functionality.  

Why did it do this? I wanted to test myself to see which one I would use more, which one I would use first, which one I would enjoy using more, would I quit one etc.  The funny thing I knew I was experimenting on myself, so I needed to give myself a few months of using before I settled on what I would like. I was surprised as the month wore on and what I chose to settle on also surprised me.  

From day one, I went to my home-grown system and leveraged the automated routines, as well as the slash-commands. 

It was a bit mechanical, but it worked and the results of the data entred gave me a great analysis of my data. It also helped me make some slight changes to get better. The dashboard below is what I look at daily. 

As well as a graph that really shows how my life is not 100% flat, that is a rollercoaster. 
 

During the experiment I liked interacting with the chatbot with a personality more, instead of typing /workout <enter my work out here>, and then /diet <enter diet info>, I could put some conversation in like. I did my back and bi’s today and ate a healthy egg wrap for breakfast. The AI was able to load the same data but also would respond with some personality.  

I found myself enjoying the interactions and not just logging to get the data in. Now there are a lot of other parts of the routine that I will not show, personal journal entries, acts of kindness but you should get the point.  

My first change was to allow me to enter data via plain text versus having to use the slash commands.  The response of just responding correctly with what it entered was initially a dopamine hit, but later that waned. I updated it once more to have a personality; the home grown one now acts like Open Claw that I had created a soul for. I acually was amazed at the results as I assumed that I would get bored or annoyed by human-like responses and the analytical side of me would be fine with data. What I found happening was that it was the connection to the tool that was interesting, though I still do not chat with it during the day as a person, but as my personal assistant and coach I use it when needed.  

I have set up both unique personalities. Should I choose an assistant with dry wit, slapstick humor, or a direct approach? I am interested in the answers myself.  

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers, have nothing to do with it. I do not write for financial gain; I do not take advertising, and any product company listed was not paid. But if you do like what I write, you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. The fundraising site had to be restarted, and NYP Hospital made changes to their donation sites. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket; my intention is to keep it free.  You can comment, but note it is moderated, and spam will be removed.   

 This Blog is a labor of love and was originally going to be a book. With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web, I chose this path. I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content. I apologize in advance for my ADD as topics may flip. I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.  AI is not used in this writing other than using the web to find information. Images without notes are created using an AI tool that allows me to reuse them. And as always spelunz iz opshunal.