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.
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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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
In this episode, we explore why weather carries such powerful symbolic meaning in storytelling and everyday language. From storms representing conflict and change, to sunshine signalling hope and renewal, we unpack how these associations appear across literature, film and culture. We consider whether these meanings are rooted in physical experience—how weather affects our bodies and behaviour—or…
In this episode, we explore the idea of “evil corporations,” prompted by a legal case in which a woman successfully sued social media companies for making their platforms addictive. We examine whether corporations deliberately design harmful products, concluding that in many cases they do, and question whether it makes sense to describe corporations as “evil” in human terms at all. Along the way,…
In this episode, we ask how we know when something has really ended, starting with the much-criticised finale of Game of Thrones . We explore why some endings feel satisfying while others feel rushed, artificial or unresolved, looking at the difference between fiction and real life. We discuss how stories impose structure on events, why audiences crave resolution and how endings can depend on…
In this episode of the Cognitive Engineering Podcast, the team responds to a listener’s question about how to buy a car, using it as a springboard into wider ideas about decision-making. They explore the tension between analytical approaches—spreadsheets, cost breakdowns and rational comparisons—and more instinctive, emotionally driven choices. Drawing on their own contrasting experiences, from…
