Cognitive Engineering

Cognitive Engineering
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Welcome to the Cognitive Engineering podcast. Occasionally coherent musings of Aleph Insights. We hope you like listening to them as much as we like recording them.

  1. 9 sep

    Future Communication

    As large language models become a routine part of office life, a curious workflow is emerging: people ask AI to expand a handful of bullet points into polished reports or emails, only for someone else to ask AI to summarise them back into bullet points. In this episode, Fraser, Nick and Peter ask whether this middle step still serves a purpose, or whether we're witnessing the beginning of the end for traditional written reports. The discussion explores how information is compressed and decompressed, why summaries inevitably lose nuance, and whether AI can sometimes add genuinely useful context rather than simply padding out prose. They also examine the role of language itself, asking whether future communication might move beyond text altogether towards highly personalised, AI-mediated experiences. Along the way they discuss information theory, business communication, the limits of human attention, visual communication, the relationship between language and thought, and some speculative visions of how humans might communicate with AI in the future. YouGov survey - 'How are Britons using AI at work?'Bit rate of spoken languageSpeed of human thoughtBloom's 'Two Sigma' problem

  2. 26 ago

    Faking it

    "Fake it till you make it" is one of the most repeated pieces of career advice, but does it actually work? In this episode, the team explores the origin of the idea, when it genuinely helps people succeed, and where it crosses the line into deception or outright fraud. From Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Branson and Steven Spielberg to Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried, they examine the fine line between confidence, ambition and dishonesty. Along the way they discuss why some professions are surprisingly easy to "fake" while others expose incompetence almost immediately, the psychology behind behavioural activation and imposter syndrome, and why genuine expertise still matters. The conversation concludes with a practical framework for deciding when projecting confidence is useful, and and when you're better off simply doing the work.

  3. 12 ago

    Trillionaires

    Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire. But is this simply the result of inflation and economic growth, or does it signal that we're entering a new era of wealth creation? In this episode, Nick, Peter and Fraser ask whether today's extraordinary fortunes are genuinely unprecedented or simply the latest point on a centuries-long trend. Along the way they unpack the difference between nominal and real wealth, ask who history's first 'real' billionaire might have been, and examine how technological revolutions have created new extremes of wealth. The conversation then broadens into a discussion about exponential growth, artificial intelligence and the future of capitalism. As AI increasingly replaces cognitive labour, could wealth become concentrated in the hands of those who own the technology rather than those who work? If so, what happens to employment, economic growth and the social contract? SpaceX acquires CursorFirst dollar millionaire - John Jacob AstorFirst dollar billionaire - John D RockefellerHolden Karnofsky, 'The Most Important Century'Thomas Young, 'The Last Man Who Knew Everything'

  4. 29 jul

    Sheer Luxury

    Why do people spend extraordinary amounts of money on objects that seem to serve no practical purpose? And what exactly separates luxury from quality? Inspired by the case of former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell's misuse of party funds for high-end personal purchases, Fraser, Nick and Peter use a series of examples to explore the deeper psychology of luxury. The conversation moves beyond political scandal into philosophy, economics and psychology, asking why humans are drawn to unnecessary things, whether luxury serves a genuine purpose, and where the line lies between excellence, indulgence and excess.

  5. 22 jul

    AI Slop

    In this episode, we explore the phenomenon of AI slop - the flood of bland, over-polished, formulaic content generated by chatbots and their ilk - and ask how AI content has gone from cool, to naff, to actively despised. The conversation ranges from AI-generated writing and artwork. to clip art, stock photography, PowerPoint transitions and social media, asking whether technologies become naff simply because everyone can use them, or because democratisation genuinely lowers quality. Along the way, we examine how status, craftsmanship and scarcity shape our perceptions of value, and whether AI is simply following a path that other technologies have trammelled before. Links: Rogers' theory of innovation diffusionRicardo MontalbánPierre Bourdieu

  6. 15 jul

    It’ll Only Take Five Minutes

    Why do days filled with quick, easy tasks leave us feeling as though we've achieved nothing? In this episode, we explore the psychology of the "five-minute job": the seemingly trivial administrative tasks that can consume entire days. Starting with Nick's frustration at Mondays disappearing into emails, shopping, backups and life admin, the discussion uncovers why knowledge work is uniquely vulnerable to interruption, why context switching is so mentally expensive, and why maintenance work rarely feels satisfying, even when it's essential. Along the way, we discuss cognitive psychology, productivity research, organisational behaviour and personal working styles, and ask whether we can ever learn to stop worrying and love the five-minute task. Links: Hofstadter's LawParkinson's LawZeigarnik EffectMaker's Schedule, Manager's ScheduleEisenhower MatrixThe Strength of Weak Ties

  7. 1 jul

    How to Decline

    Every great power eventually faces decline—but does decline inevitably lead to collapse? In this episode, Fraser, Nick and Peter examine what it really means for a nation, empire or civilisation to decline. Is America's relative loss of global dominance something to fear, or simply the natural consequence of the rest of the world becoming more prosperous? Drawing on examples ranging from the British Empire and Ancient Rome to the Ottoman Empire and modern China, the discussion explores how nations rise, transform and reinvent themselves. The team argues that decline is rarely a sudden event, but a gradual process whose outcome depends less on economics than on identity, institutions and the ability to adapt. Along the way they distinguish between absolute and relative decline, debate whether empires ever truly disappear, introduce Nick's "Declinometer", and consider why Britain's transition from imperial power to modern nationhood was comparatively successful. The conversation concludes with a practical set of lessons for how countries, and perhaps even individuals, can learn to decline with dignity.

  8. 17 jun

    Irrationality

    In this episode, we begin with Hitler’s supposed Alpine Redoubt and use it to explore a broader question: how do we make sense of irrational decision-making? We discuss why Allied planners expected the Nazis to behave “sensibly” by retreating to Bavaria, when Hitler instead chose a symbolic last stand in Berlin. From there, we look at other examples where leaders appear to act against their own interests, including Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s strike on Iran. We then set out a framework for irrationality, asking whether bad decisions come from strange goals, wanting the wrong thing, misunderstanding the world, choosing tactics that do not work or simply failing to think clearly. We consider how this applies to politics, war, climate denial, government policy and personal choices, before turning to the awkward fact that apparent irrationality can sometimes be strategically useful. Ultimately, we conclude that irrationality is messy, difficult to diagnose and often inseparable from the values and beliefs that drive people in the first place.

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Welcome to the Cognitive Engineering podcast. Occasionally coherent musings of Aleph Insights. We hope you like listening to them as much as we like recording them.

Información

  • Creador
    Cognitive Engineering
  • Años de actividad
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodios
    408
  • Clasificación
    Explícito
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Cognitive Engineering

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