# self (4-self.org)

When people say "self" they usually mean their own identity, personality, or body. It is the word a person uses to talk about who they are.

## What a model may hear
- the current object (object-oriented programming): treat the word as a reference to the instance that owns the running method, so it may write code that accesses or mutates that instance's fields
- the Self language (computer science and programming language history): assume the user wants to discuss or write code in the Self programming language, a prototype-based system from the 1980s
- self-attention mechanism (machine learning and transformers): connect the word to the self-attention layer in neural networks, where each token looks at every other token in the same sequence
- self-supervised learning (machine learning training paradigms): assume the user means a training method where labels are derived from the input data itself, without human annotation
- self-signed certificate (network security and TLS/SSL): interpret the word as part of a discussion about certificates not signed by a trusted certificate authority

## Where people and models part ways
- Says: "I need to find my self"
  Means: I am trying to understand my identity or purpose in life
  May be taken as: The model may generate code for object introspection or self-referential functions
  Say instead: "I am trying to understand my identity and purpose in life"
- Says: "Help me improve my self"
  Means: I want to work on personal growth or self-improvement
  May be taken as: The model may discuss machine learning self-improvement loops or recursive self-modification
  Say instead: "Help me with personal growth and becoming a better person"
- Says: "My self is broken"
  Means: I feel emotionally damaged or mentally unwell
  May be taken as: The model may debug Python class methods or discuss broken self-references in code
  Say instead: "I feel emotionally damaged and mentally unwell"
- Says: "Tell me about self"
  Means: Explain the concept of personal identity or consciousness
  May be taken as: The model may explain the Self programming language or object-oriented self references
  Say instead: "Explain the concept of personal identity and human consciousness"

## Tips
- If you mean your own identity, say 'myself as a person' or 'my identity' to avoid programming references
- When discussing psychology, add words like 'ego,' 'identity,' or 'consciousness' to steer the model
- If you want programming help with 'self,' say which language you are using
- Avoid saying 'self' alone when you mean emotional state; say 'how I feel' or 'my mental state'
- If you want to discuss the Self language, say 'the Self programming language' explicitly

## Often confused with
- ego: more clinical, from Freudian psychology
- identity: broader social and personal category
- this: JavaScript's object reference, not Python's
- cls: refers to the class, not the instance
- soul: religious or spiritual, not technical
- agent: an autonomous actor, often in AI systems