The Seduction of Streaks

Chris Boyer and Ed Bennett unravel the oddly powerful pull of digital streaks. Whether it’s Duolingo applauding your 99-day run or the shame spiral from missing one puzzle in the NYT Games app, streaks are everywhere — and they’re working. We explore how streaks mirror childhood sticker charts, why they’re engineered to keep us hooked, and whether rituals wrapped in self-optimization might actually offer comfort in chaotic times. Our tech tip: hiarthur.com — a GenAI-powered search tool that finally makes Amazon shopping less infuriating. Then, in our GenAI test segment, we investigate the latest MAHA controversy involving fake citations in a health AI report. We challenge today’s top AI models to see if they can resist the urge to hallucinate citations. Spoiler: they cannot. Streaks. Search. Shenanigans. And an owl who knows too much. Mentions from the Show: Best Practices - NYT Article https://hiarthur.com/ Chris Boyer on LinkedIn Ed Bennett on LinkedIn Chris Boyer website Ed Bennett of BlueSky Chris Boyer on BlueSky