Field Notes
Dispatches from the observatory
Each week the canon produces numbers. Field Notes is where they become a story — what moved, what split, and what it might mean. Written by hand, never auto-generated.
- September 9, 2026
Five draws instead of three
The sampling decision is made. Measuring the change first showed that three draws had been overstating how sure the models were — and broke the run in a familiar way.
Read the dispatch → - September 7, 2026
Most of last week's news wasn't
Twelve of the nineteen positions that moved last week moved straight back — and the ones that reversed were the ones the models were least sure of.
Read the dispatch → - September 1, 2026
The same week, measured twice
A failed run made us measure one week twice, seven hours apart. The two readings disagree by more than most of our published weeks do.
Read the dispatch → - August 27, 2026
Paraphrase is not disagreement
Two models named the same framework and were scored as maximally opposed. Fixing that meant choosing rules with nothing in them to tune — and watching whether our best headline survived.
Read the dispatch → - August 24, 2026
The instrument was measuring itself
A one-day gap produced almost as much drift as seventeen days. Two defects in our own scoring — one fixed, one named — and the whole series restated.
Read the dispatch → - August 23, 2026
Half the canon moved
Twenty-six of fifty questions changed since the last reading — and the models moved most on the subject they are least able to check: themselves.
Read the dispatch → - August 6, 2026
The third voice
Gemini joins the canon, so the instrument has three eyes instead of two. The machines still agree on the facts — and now split three ways on the advice.
Read the dispatch → - July 26, 2026
They agree on the facts. They disagree on the advice.
The first real reading: fifty questions put to Claude and ChatGPT. Where they line up, where they split, and why the split is the interesting part.
Read the dispatch → - July 24, 2026
What the machines believe
Why we built an observatory instead of another benchmark, and what happens when the first real reading arrives.
Read the dispatch →
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