Article

A Model of Human Cognition: From Observation to Theory

Humans do not merely recognize patterns. They construct progressively richer representations from their observations. This article proposes a typed model of cognition in which learning is the creation of higher-order representational objects and thinking is the recursive manipulation of those objects.

Phroneses.com · EN

Testing Distributed Systems

Testing distributed systems is hard due to scale and changing the system's environment can affect how the system performs. Sampling and observability offer ways forward.

Phroneses.com · EN

Where is the Puck Skating to?

Last month, Meta showed off Orion , which I can only describe as a concept car version of augmented reality (AR) glasses. Orion is a pair of AR glasses that come with a compute puck, that is wirelessly connected to the glasses, and a neural wristband that tracks hand movements. Orion, or some future version of it, is purported to be the device/platform that will replace smartphones. The idea of strapping a computer to your face and seeing the world through it not new, and has been attempted in many forms in the past, most recently, Apple Vision Pro. What past attempts have in common, though, i

Often Wrong · EN

Why Apple Intelligence Ads Miss the Mark

Apple's ads have a storied history of excellent branding and messaging, which made their latest Apple Intelligence ads feel strangely off to me. These ads, when contrasted with their older ones, reveal a kind of cognitive dissonance. Apple, a company known for its deliberate and thoughtful storytelling, seems to be rushing into this huge category – a decades-long arc according to them . This haste might explain why the ads feel disjointed, and lack the cohesion of their predecessors. Let's look at the ads to try and unpack this uneasiness. Apple's Ad Legacy Apple's ads have near-mythical statu

Often Wrong · EN

Thoughts on Personalized Podcasts

Podcasts have exploded in popularity ( About half of Americans have listened to a podcast in the past year ). What started as a niche medium has become a platform for everyone from celebrities to politicians to business leaders. We're even seeing podcasts dig into deep technical content, including scientific papers. Recently, we have seen tools such as NotebookLM and Eleven Labs Reader that let you make podcast episodes out of pieces of text, using AI. Despite this innovation, the core experience of listening to a podcast episode, regardless of how it was generated, remains static. Once the ho

Often Wrong · EN

The AI Compute Currency Problem

While strides are being made in model efficiency, model complexity is outpacing efficiency gains. Recent comments by industry leaders suggest that this is going to be the status quo for the time being. Newer models, with o3, o4-mini, 2.5 Pro are getting smarter, and handling increasingly complex tasks (Deep Research, agentic workflows, etc.). That means charging $20/mo even with usage limits does not cut it, because the limits would be too low for frontier models. Naturally, AI service providers are introducing higher limit tiers for their latest and greatest models. OpenAI and Anthropic seem

Often Wrong · EN

Are We Looking at the First iPhone Built for AI?

The iPhone design cycle seemed to have shifted from two years to three in the recent years. But with the 17 Pro, Apple has completely redesigned the chassis and used a new material, after a brief two year stint with titanium. Is this an intentional move to switch back to a two year design cycle as Ben Thompson speculates ? Or did something else cause this change? A bit of context for those that are not obsessively tracking internal details about iPhones (I am aware of my problem). Apple had gone from using stainless steel to titanium for their Pro phones in 2023, touting the many benefits of t

Often Wrong · EN

Power User Feature Requests for AI

Photo by Yuma Nozaki on Unsplash I thought it might be fun to jot down a few features I wish AI chatbots had, things that fit better with the way I think and use them. I'm keeping this as a living scorecard to see what I get right vs. what actually ships. Also, it just so happens that towards the end of 2025, Your Year with ChatGPT told me I was in the top 1% of users by usage. Obviously, given this elite status, my thoughts are so valuable that they needed to be shared (/s in case it was not clear). On Memory Memory is one of my favorite features of ChatGPT, and I was surprised it took as lon

Often Wrong · EN

Status Games and the Future of Social Networks

There seem to be more and more services popping up that let you generate fake vacation pictures with AI, as covered by The Verge here . At first I thought, "why would anyone want to use this?" But then when I saw Adam Mosseri's end-of-year thoughts about Instagram (also summarized by PetaPixel ), it made sense to me. In this post, I want to go through the things I agree with Adam about, and one important bit that I disagree with. The death of the feed First, a brief aside about Instagram. The main feed has been in decline over the past few years. This has been covered by many tech outlets, and

Often Wrong · EN

Responses Won't Always Be Perfect

Spotify recently announced an AI chatbot, called " Talk to Spotify ", that does what you'd expect. Users can ask questions in natural language and it answers. I admit I have not tried it, but reading the announcement made me groan more than excited. This is my way of putting that groan into words. At the bottom of the article there is a disclaimer saying, "...the responses won't always be perfect". Now, I'm not picking on Spotify specifically here. Most, if not all, the companies launching AI chatbots tack on the same disclaimer. Snap's My AI and Microsoft Copilot's disclaimers I feel like par

Often Wrong · EN

Desert Bike

Well this was unexpected. I pulled over at this random spot in the desert to take pictures, and I see a blue glint in a bush — I look closer and it’s a bike — With this message scribbled on it: “June 18, 2026: I will return for this bike, leave it here!” Now I’m […] The post Desert Bike appeared first on Nick Carr / Location Scout .

Nick Carr / Location Scout · EN

Trends

As a location scout, prob 50% of the places I scout are houses, and it’s always interesting when you see The Hip New Thing suddenly start to show up everywhere. Like the stove with the red knobs — You know this sort of thing when you see it, because your reaction is always the same: […] The post Trends appeared first on Nick Carr / Location Scout .

Nick Carr / Location Scout · EN

Red Wings

My trusty Red Wings after five years (and three resoles!) of movie location scouting… I think it’s finally time for a new pair…but it’s hard to say goodbye! The post Red Wings appeared first on Nick Carr / Location Scout .

Nick Carr / Location Scout · EN

The New York City Filming Locations of The Warriors – Part 1

The Warriors never set foot in the Bronx. This might come as a surprise, seeing as how the movie revolves around a New York City gang trying to make their way from the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park to Brooklyn’s Coney Island, but filming only took place in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. However, authenticity aside, The […] The post The New York City Filming Locations of The Warriors – Part 1 appeared first on Nick Carr / Location Scout .

Nick Carr / Location Scout · EN

The New York City Filming Locations of The Warriors – Part 2

This is Part 2 of a then-and-now look at the New York City filming locations of The Warriors. Click here for Part 1! Resuming where we left off, the Warriors are on a train heading toward Union Square when a nearby fire forces them out into the the Tremont section of the Bronx on foot. […] The post The New York City Filming Locations of The Warriors – Part 2 appeared first on Nick Carr / Location Scout .

Nick Carr / Location Scout · EN

NoName Road

I was scouting for something the other day going street by street…and I guess at some point, they just called it quits and went home? The post NoName Road appeared first on Nick Carr / Location Scout .

Nick Carr / Location Scout · EN

On Movie Location Scouting and Socks

This is ridiculously hyperspecific to my particular profession, but one of my favorite work occurrences as a movie location scout is when we take the director and VIPs to visit The House Where You Have To Take Off Your Shoes. Some background on what the heck I’m talking about – Location scouting works like this: […] The post On Movie Location Scouting and Socks appeared first on Nick Carr / Location Scout .

Nick Carr / Location Scout · EN

Companion

Last week, I was scouting desert backroads and thinking how lonely location scouting can sometimes be, when I looked up and saw I had a companion! About a hundred yards so off the road, I saw a bobcat. He didn’t seem to notice (or care about) me, so I quietly drove alongside and watched as […] The post Companion appeared first on Nick Carr / Location Scout .

Nick Carr / Location Scout · EN

I feel like retreating into art

A greyness has fallen. The line between what passed for normality and what now passes for global insanity blurred sometime in the last few years. It's hard to remember. But the crises have been building for at least a few decades - the expansion of the security state post-911, the global financial crisis, Covid 19, the rise of authoritarian movements and grievance politicians cashing in hard on people who are listless and confused, ai grifting, manosphere grifting, and the climate crisis and the continued inability of corporate owned governments to do anything meaningful to address it. Maybe I

The Moody Warlock's Ember Keep · EN

Lumpy ghoul - scribbling again

This guy is a lumpy undead ghoul. It’s touch can cause scores of weeping sores to break out, unless save versus poison is successful: Email me about this post . Subscribe to my blog via RSS feed . /

The Moody Warlock's Ember Keep · EN

Every Moment Disappears - the quiet struggle to create in a world that seems mad

Thirty years ago I decided to start making music. It’s a hobby. A joy. I admit no great skill and demand no audience. The learning curve, as in all such creative pursuits, is large and long, but this forms the journey. It's integral - the successes, the failures, almosts, connections, and decisions. Starting on this road taught me to be patient about developing skill and taste. It caused me to realise that I could also take time to develop other joys - photography, painting, drawing. The results, in all cases, are less important than the road to get there. When I started, I judged my music har

The Moody Warlock's Ember Keep · EN

I hate this work...

Just imagine that your whole life, you were pretty ordinary at something, like mathematics. You spent years being frustrated, tutored, and being told you could do it if you tried hard enough. Eventually, you accepted you were just never going to understand it beyond a below average level of competence. Now imagine you started a job that included some of those skills you're not good at, but mostly you can get through it because the job demands more from other skills you are good at. Suddenly, they switch jobs on you because this other work has dried up and they need to keep you busy. Now, you f

The Moody Warlock's Ember Keep · EN

Why painting is great

I haven't painted in almost three years but now, more than ever, it feels so vital and important. Being a great painter has never been my goal. Whatever great means, very few people carry the label. Engaging with the canvas through paint and brush is so distant from the sycophantic grift of ai that it feels like freedom. From ai shills, I often hear this line: get onboard or be left behind. Artists have always used the latest tech. So, if an art practice involves ancient Japanese calligraphy, do they feel left behind for not using the latest tools? This is why we mustn't frame artistry as prod

The Moody Warlock's Ember Keep · EN

Demon portraits after work

After work today, I decided to scribble this green guy. I feel like I'm getting better at locating facial features so the result looks ok. I started with a loose graphite sketch, then acrylic pen, some pencil, and oil pastel. I think my long gone 12 year old self would have been pretty happy with this effort. I used Mont Marte oil pastels - cheap and cheerful colours, but quite firm, a bit dull, and not very lightfast. I just ordered some Mungyo branded oil pastels for more colour and better blending. I'm not a professional and this is just for fun, so I'm not even looking at the pricey brands

The Moody Warlock's Ember Keep · EN