Tech & AI
Why AI chatbots make things up
They are not lying, and they are not broken. The behaviour follows directly from what the system was built to do — which is why it is so hard to remove.
Everyday
Do flight prices really rise when you search twice?
The belief is close to universal. The evidence for it is thin, and the mechanism that actually moves the price is both simpler and less personal.
Money
What 'buy now, pay later' actually costs
Splitting a payment into four is genuinely interest-free. The cost sits in three other places, and only one of them appears on the checkout screen.
Money
What 'buy now, pay later' actually costs
Splitting a payment into four is genuinely interest-free. The cost sits in three other places, and only one of them appears on the checkout screen.
Money
The four ways a subscription price rises without you noticing
Almost nobody cancels because of a price increase. That is partly because the increase usually doesn't look like one.
Money
What 0% APR actually costs you
Interest-free financing is rarely free. The cost is usually moved somewhere you are not looking — into the price, the term, or a clause at the end.
Tech & AI
Why AI chatbots make things up
They are not lying, and they are not broken. The behaviour follows directly from what the system was built to do — which is why it is so hard to remove.
Tech & AI
What a VPN actually hides — and what it doesn't
A VPN moves the point at which your traffic becomes visible. It does not make you anonymous, and the difference matters more than the marketing suggests.
Tech & AI
What 'AI agents' actually do — and what they still can't
Every company now sells an 'agent.' Underneath the marketing, most of them are doing one of three things. Here is how to tell which.
Fine Print
What a 'lifetime warranty' actually covers
The word lifetime rarely refers to yours. Four clauses decide what the promise is worth, and they are usually in a separate document.
Fine Print
How to read a return policy: the five clauses that decide everything
Return policies are written to sound generous and behave narrowly. The gap between the two lives in five specific clauses.
Health
What 'clinically proven' is allowed to mean
The phrase sounds like a regulatory standard. In marketing it is closer to a description of a process, and the gap between the two is where the claim lives.
Health
Your sleep tracker's 'sleep score' is mostly an estimate
Wearables can measure movement and heart rate well. Sleep stages are a different problem — and the number on your screen is a guess dressed as a measurement.
Everyday
Do flight prices really rise when you search twice?
The belief is close to universal. The evidence for it is thin, and the mechanism that actually moves the price is both simpler and less personal.
Everyday
Why your speed test says one thing and your download says another
A connection rated at 100 can deliver a file at 12 and both numbers can be correct. The gap comes from four things, and only one of them is your provider.
Everyday
How to read a lease before you sign it
Most disputes come from five clauses. You can find all of them in about ten minutes if you know where to look.
Curious
Nine everyday things that were invented by accident
A failed glue, a melted chocolate bar, a contaminated petri dish. Some of the most useful objects around you exist because an experiment went wrong.
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