Ray Svitla

Table of content

Strategist · Lisbon, Portugal

I write self.md to document how people build AI-powered personal operating systems — analyzing Claude Code, GPT, Gemini, and custom agent workflows.

self@svit.la · svit.la · X · LinkedIn · GitHub

Background

Originally from Belarus, in Portugal since 2022.

Founded the research department at bdc.consulting — published in Binance, Cointelegraph, The Block, Investing.com. Research became the firm’s most profitable sales channel, landing tier-1 clients like CoinsPaid, Bybit, and Blockchain.com.
Co-founded WAKA, a community-driven dating app that reached 100,000 users in Ukraine with 10× lower CAC than market average.
Since 2022, running 404 Embassy — Network State events in London, Lisbon, and Berlin with speakers including Vitalik Buterin and Patri Friedman.
Executive MBA from Kozminski University. Alum of IKRA (Eastern Europe’s top school for creative industries) and the John Smith Trust.

What I write about

My frameworks that show up across self.md:

Context Obesity

Why AI tools fail to reduce cognitive load. Not burnout — overloaded working memory.

From the HackerNoon article :

“AI doesn’t plug into a system — it plugs into chaos.”

Symptom	Traditional Diagnosis	Context Obesity Lens
Exhaustion after AI sessions	Burnout	Working memory overflow
Forgetting what AI said	Poor focus	Context never captured
Repeating prompts	AI limitation	No personal system prompt
Decision paralysis	Overthinking	Too many open loops

AI tools amplify whatever system (or lack of system) you already have. Adding Claude to chaos produces faster chaos.

The Three-Step Fix

1. Capture — everything that enters your mind goes into one inbox. Not organized. Just captured. Voice memos, screenshots, quick notes, AI conversation exports.

2. Structure — weekly review to process the inbox.

Action	Rule
Delete	No longer relevant
Do	Under 2 minutes
Defer	Add to task list
File	Goes into notes

3. Personal System Prompt — build a document that represents your current state: active projects, current priorities, relevant context, decision criteria. Feed this to AI at session start.

Personal OS → Founder OS → Civic OS.

404 Embassy Atlas

My main civic project applies the same thinking to governance. 404 Embassy Atlas is an open-source database mapping network states, charter cities, and DAOs using the EPNC (Embassy Protocol for Network Cartography) classification framework.

Layer	Purpose
Data collection	Structured research on governance experiments
Classification	EPNC taxonomy for comparing entities
Visualization	Observable-based interactive maps

Same pattern as personal productivity: capture chaos, apply taxonomy, make it searchable.

Key Quotes

“The right to audit systems that govern your life is THE right.”
“Phones extended our hands; AI extends intent.”

Key Takeaways

Principle	Implementation
Externalize working memory	Capture before organizing
AI amplifies your system	Build system first, add AI second
Weekly review is non-negotiable	Process inbox, update system prompt
Context is compounding	Your personal system prompt grows with you