AI
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and everything LLM
#3157: Opus 4.8: What Actually Changed Under the Hood
Anthropic dropped Opus 4.8 with no fanfare. New training data, faster inference, and smarter refusals — here's what changed.
#3154: What Actually Counts as the First Musical?
The Black Crook, The Beggar's Opera, or Show Boat? The origin of musical theater reveals what we value about the form.
#3150: Can Life Skills Prevent Crime Before It Starts?
The evidence is decades old — why aren't we teaching life skills before people offend?
#3149: Who Actually Decides to Prosecute?
The King’s name is on every indictment, but he’s never asked. So who really decides who gets charged?
#3131: Beyond Splitting the Difference: The Math of Fair Compromise
Most people treat compromise as splitting the difference. That's almost always wrong.
#3127: Crafting AI Characters That Feel Alive
Move beyond system prompts with structured character bibles that give AI personalities real inner lives.
#3121: Can You Benchmark Government Value for Money?
A century of attempts to measure whether citizens get a good deal on taxes — and why none have fully worked.
#3120: What Makes Agentic Search Tools Like Exa Actually Work?
Why swapping Google for Exa transformed our show's accuracy — and what agentic search does differently.
#3100: How Cars Predict Black Ice Before Your Foot Hits the Brake
From ABS to AI: how cars evolved from surviving crashes to predicting them before drivers notice danger.
#3099: How Car Mechanics Master 50 Vehicles a Week
The hidden systems thinking that lets mechanics fix any car and how you can apply it.
#3098: The Pilot with the Flashlight: Inside Aviation's Pre-Flight Walkaround
Why pilots still physically inspect planes before every flight — and what a 1979 crash taught us about trusting machines.
#3087: Inside the Conspiracy Mind: History, Belief, and Harm
Why do humans fall for conspiracy theories? History, psychology, and the surprising data on who actually believes.
#3075: Paint Marker vs Alcohol Marker: Which Lasts Longer?
Paint markers chip. Alcohol markers fade. Which one actually survives longer on your inventory?
#3067: How Glow-in-the-Dark Actually Works
The atomic-level physics behind phosphorescence and why oil-based glow markers don't exist.
#3040: How Buffets Actually Stay in Business
Plate sizes, stomach limits, and why the guy eating six plates isn't hurting profits.
#3038: Animating Toy Story: Math, Patience, and No Undo Button
Before Pixar could make Woody blink, animators typed coordinates by hand and waited hours to see if it worked.
#3023: Beyond Netflix Docs: Where to Find the Good Stuff
Kanopy, DocuBay, WaterBear, and the festival circuit — how to find documentaries with actual substance.
#3017: Why Every Restaurant Has 4.6 Stars
Google Maps ratings are broken. Here's how four mechanisms inflate them — and what actually works instead.
#2978: Wine from the Desert and the Latitude of Greenland
How 80 countries now make wine — including desert vineyards and farms near the Arctic Circle.
#2959: How to Build a Stock Photo Library You Can Actually Search
Capture strategies, pro tagging tips, and tool comparisons for building a searchable personal stock photo library.