Latest posts
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When you let Claude Haiku build your timeline feature
I saved 95% on tokens by switching from Opus to Haiku. Then one problem took 30 minutes instead of 5. Here’s why model choice matters more than cost.
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Roborock vs ECOVACS vs Xiaomi: Which Chinese Robot Vacuum Is Actually Worth Buying?
Comparing three Chinese robot vacuum brands head-to-head. Why Roborock’s founder quit Google, how ECOVACS beat the odds, and when Xiaomi is actually good enough.
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The Real Problem with AI Tools (And Why I Stopped Building Them)
After building 150+ AI tools, I realized I wasn’t building tools. I was building decision frameworks.
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Stop Getting Lost in Travel Planning — Let AI Read Your Mind Instead
Built a free tool that turns your travel details into structured AI prompts. Copy-paste to ChatGPT. No more vague travel planning.
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I Let AI Decide: Repair or Replace My Kitchen Range Hood. It Cost Me $38 More—Here’s What I Learned
When to repair vs replace appliances? I asked AI and a technician got opposite advice. Here’s what really happened—and how AI missed the mark.
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I Asked AI to Predict My Blog Traffic. Here’s What Happened.
I asked AI to predict which blog post would bring me traffic. It sounded confident. I spent hours writing it. The actual results told a very different story. Here’s what a month-long experiment with Xiaohongshu revealed about AI predictions.
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What Is the Ben Franklin Effect?
You ask a coworker for help with a project. They assist. Now they like you more than before, even if they were neutral before. The favor created liking. The Original Discovery Ben Franklin noted in his autobiography that an enemy who did him a favor became his friend. He theorized that people rationalize their actions:…
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What Is the Cobra Effect?
A school pays kids for good grades. Students cheat to get grades. The incentive (payment) created the problem (cheating), making education worse. The Original Discovery British colonial India offered bounty for cobra skins to reduce cobra population. People started breeding cobras to collect bounties. When the program was canceled, breeders released the cobras. The problem…
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What Is the Spotlight Effect?
You arrive to a meeting 5 minutes late. You feel everyone is watching and judging. In reality, they barely noticed. They’re focused on the meeting content. The Original Discovery Gilovich’s study (1999). He had students wear embarrassing T-shirts in public, predicting others would notice. In reality, only 23% of passersby noticed the shirt. Students estimated…
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What Is the IKEA Effect?
You build a bookshelf (IKEA) yourself. It’s wobbly and poorly finished. You love it and take great care of it. A professionally-made bookshelf of the same quality feels cheap and disposable. The Original Discovery Kahneman and Norton’s study (2011). They had people assemble IKEA furniture or origami. Those who assembled rated their creations significantly higher…
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What Is Gambler’s Fallacy?
A lottery hasn’t hit the number 7 in 100 draws. Someone bets heavily on 7, thinking it’s ‘overdue.’ The probability is still 1 in (whatever), but the bias makes it feel like 7 ‘should’ come soon. The Original Discovery Observed in Monte Carlo, 1913, when roulette landed on black 26 times in a row. Gamblers…
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What Is the Peak-End Rule?
A colonoscopy procedure (Group A): 20 minutes of pain, ends with 3 minutes of extra pain. (Group B): same 20 minutes, but 3 minutes more of mild pain. Group A rates the experience better because it ends more unpleasantly. The Original Discovery Daniel Kahneman’s research (1993). He had subjects put hands in cold water. Group…
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What Is Blind Following Effect?
A manager implements a new process. Teams follow it without questioning. Later, it’s discovered the process is inefficient, but by then it’s established as ‘how we do things.’ The Original Discovery Demonstrated in obedience studies (Milgram) and conformity research (Asch). People obey instructions even when the instructions contradict their values or common sense. How It…
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What Is the Gadfly Effect?
Ralph Nader (consumer safety gadfly) highlighted auto safety issues. The auto industry ignored him, so he testified before Congress. His ‘nagging’ eventually led to seatbelts and safety standards. The Original Discovery Named after Socrates, who called himself a gadfly to Athens, stinging the city with questions to challenge complacency. Used by activists, critics, and disruptors…
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What Is Tunnel Vision Effect?
A company obsesses over market share and misses the fact that customer satisfaction is tanking. Revenue grows, but churn accelerates. By the time they notice, customers have already left. The Original Discovery Derived from the literal tunnel vision in visual perception. Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris demonstrated it famously with the ‘invisible gorilla’ test (1999)—people…
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What Is the Door-in-the-Face Technique?
A charity asks you for $1,000 donation. You refuse. Then they ask for $10. Compared to $1,000, $10 feels reasonable, and you give it. Without the $1,000 anchor, $10 might feel like too much. The Original Discovery Cialdini’s 1975 study. Researchers asked students to chaperone juvenile delinquents for 2 years (outrageous). After refusal, they asked…
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What Is Segal’s Law?
An employee gets feedback from their manager: ‘Great work.’ But a peer says ‘You could improve.’ Now they’re unsure about their actual performance. One opinion was clear; two opinions create doubt. The Original Discovery Attributed to Erich Segal, author of ‘Love Story’ (1970). It illustrates the paradox of conflicting information—having more sources doesn’t increase confidence,…
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What Is Weakest Link?
A website has 99.9% uptime except the database, which fails 1% of the time. The whole system is down 1% of the time, not 0.1%. The weakest link determines system reliability. The Original Discovery Common saying in engineering and systems thinking, but formalized in the 18th century. It appears in various forms: ‘A chain is…
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What Is Authority Bias?
A doctor says a treatment works. You don’t question it. A non-doctor says the same thing with the same evidence, and you’re skeptical. Authority carries weight beyond the evidence. The Original Discovery Demonstrated in famous Milgram experiments (1960s). Subjects administered ‘electric shocks’ to unseen victims because an experimenter in a lab coat told them to.…
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What Is the Anchoring Effect?
A store marks a jacket at $200, then ‘discounts’ it to $120. You feel like you’re saving $80. But if it was always $120, you’d think it’s expensive. The $200 anchor changed your perception. The Original Discovery Tversky and Kahneman’s famous studies in the 1970s. They asked people ‘Is the percentage of African nations in…