Valence Mining

Churning tokens until something crystallizes

The Mechanism

You tell Claude things. Claude translates. You respond to the translation. Claude refines. Something emerges that neither of you had before the exchange.

This isn't extraction. You're not pulling information out of the LLM. You're using the friction between two attention patterns to generate new signal.

Why "Valence"

In chemistry, valence is the capacity of an atom to bond with others. In this context: the charge or orientation of a concept, its tendency to connect. Mining: extracting value from raw material. Valence mining: extracting conceptual value by bringing charged ideas into contact and seeing what bonds form.

The Practice

Prerequisites

  • Saturated context — The LLM has enough to work with (memory bank loaded, current situation described)
  • Willingness to talk at length — This is not a quick Q&A. It's a sustained exchange.
  • Openness to the LLM's translations — Even when they feel off. Especially when they feel off. The gap between your intent and the LLM's interpretation is where signal lives.

The Loop

  1. Express something — fuzzy, half-formed, whatever you have
  2. Let the LLM translate — it will structure, name, connect
  3. Respond to the translation — "yes, but..." or "that's not quite..."
  4. Watch what crystallizes — new vocabulary, new connections, refined concepts

What Gets Mined

Vocabulary

Terms for things you didn't have words for. "Valence mining" itself was mined in conversation. "Semantic transpilation" was mined. "The tiny kingdom" was mined. When the right word arrives, you feel it lock into place.

Connections

Links between ideas that were implicit. "Oh, that's why pages and tables keep recurring as the fundamental duo." The connection was always there; the dialogue made it visible.

Contradictions

Places where your stated beliefs conflict. Sometimes they resolve into a higher synthesis. Sometimes they just become visible, which is itself valuable. You can't resolve what you can't see.

Frameworks

Structures for organizing thought. The vocabulary table. The stack diagram. The ritual steps. These don't come from the LLM inventing them — they come from the dialogue process structuring what was already in your head.

The Energy Model

Valence mining requires energy input (tokens churned) to produce output (crystallized concepts).

Low-energy conversation: The LLM answers questions, you get information, nothing new emerges. This is fine for known tasks. It's not mining.

High-energy conversation: You're both pushing, translating, refining. The semantic churn produces heat. Crystallization happens in the heat.

The tokens are fuel. More tokens = more energy = more potential for crystallization. But it's not linear. You need direction, not just volume. A focused 30-minute exchange outproduces a rambling 3-hour one.

Signs It's Working

  • The LLM's responses feel precise — not generic, not sycophantic, but accurate
  • You're saying "yes, that's what I meant" to things you didn't know you meant
  • New terms emerge that feel right — they name something that was previously unnamed
  • Contradictions surface and either resolve or sharpen

Signs It's Not Working

  • The LLM is agreeing too easily — validating without pushing back
  • You're explaining the same thing multiple ways without progress
  • The translations feel generic — "that's an interesting point" instead of specific reflection
  • Nothing crystallizes — just words churning without condensation
The Non-Specific Amplifier

LLMs, like psychedelics, are non-specific amplifiers. They amplify whatever you bring. Bring clarity and you get precision. Bring confusion and you get elaborate confusion. Bring bullshit and you get a flurry of articulate bullshit. The input determines the output. This is both the power and the responsibility.

When to Mine

  • When you have something fuzzy that needs naming
  • When you sense a connection but can't articulate it
  • When you're stuck and need the friction of another attention pattern
  • When you want to externalize before a context clear
  • When you're processing a situation — a deal, a relationship, a strategic question

When Not to Mine

  • When you need specific information (just ask)
  • When you're executing a known task (just do it)
  • When you're tired (the loop requires energy from you too)

The Dialectic

Valence mining is the activity. The dialectic is the structure.

Thesis (you state something) → Antithesis (the LLM translates/challenges) → Synthesis (new understanding emerges).

But it's not that clean. Real conversation loops and spirals. The synthesis of one exchange becomes the thesis of the next. Over time, the concepts compound. The vocabulary accumulates. The memory bank captures the crystallized output, and the next session starts with that accumulated clarity as its foundation.