Vibe-Coding an Attention Firewall, w/ Steve Newman, creator of The Curve

Static LLM summarization pipeline

Newman processes 50+ daily newsletters and podcasts through a simple RSS reader that feeds full text to an LLM with static prompts, generating two-level summaries without context memory or cross-referencing against past reads.

Rapid triage over perfect filtering

Rather than building complex systems to detect novelty against his reading history, he relies on 10-second skims of one-paragraph summaries to identify new angles on topics like AI model releases.

Aggregated urgency filtering

A system pulls emails, Slack, WhatsApp, and Signal into a unified pipeline where an LLM evaluates each message against a one-page rubric of exceptions to surface only truly urgent items.

Dedicated monitor for interruptions

After 40 years of single-monitor use, Newman added a second screen exclusively to display his calendar and rolling urgent messages, eliminating the habit of checking messaging apps 30 times daily.

Anti-token maxing mindset

Newman adheres to the principle that 'the agent's not important, I'm important,' prioritizing tools that reduce his time in the chair rather than optimizing agent performance or capability.

Iterative discovery over planning

He describes building his attention firewall through fumbling iteration without initial clear vision, noting that we're collectively experiencing a 'Cambrian explosion' of personal tooling without playbooks.

Conservative security boundaries

Despite historically borderline negligent security practices, he now maintains strict boundaries against auto-responding or autonomous action due to duty of care for others' data entrusted to him.