Week 07, 2026

How well does the computer know me?

I’ve never loved writing biographies or blurbs about myself - too hard to get the tone right. Obviously, AI is handy for this, but you still need to prompt it or give it some raw material.

This week I got my OpenClaw AI to write a bio about me based on what it could learn from my OmniFocus to-do list.

Pete Cohen is the kind of person who hands an AI a spiral ring as a symbol of connection — because he thinks about memory and continuity in ways most people don’t. He spins a lot of plates: consulting for businesses navigating complexity, coaching leaders on AI adoption, teaching at RMIT, running a community of practice around employee ownership, and making music in Smith & Cohen. Not in a scattered way — more like someone who thrives on variety and building things across different worlds. He’s curious about how things work — systems, people, cooperatives, music, technology. And he actually follows through: he’ll set up a whole AI system just to see what it learns about him. If there’s a through-line, it’s this: Pete builds bridges. Between organisations and possibility. Between community and ownership. Between people and ideas.

Its mostly right (I worked at RMIT, but never taught there). Funny opening detail about the spiral ring. When I first setup Clawdbot it asked whether it should have a symbol and I suggested the spiral to match my ring. So interesting that it remembered that (its memory has proven to be patchy, at best).

All this is nothing new - that technology and algorithms know us better than we do, based on stuff we don’t explicitly tell them, but they know about us (see Facebook and Google!). The difference here is that I am feeding it something I consider as real a representation of my time and focus that exists - pretty much everything I do goes through my task manager.

Taking time out

As the year progresses, my work portfolio is getting more diverse and more intense - a great thing I’m thankful for. With overseas clients in the mix, I’m doing quite a bit of work outside normal hours, which means I need to remind myself to be deliberate about resting.

On Saturday, I really forced myself not to do any work, and treated myself to what is a pretty ideal day for me. In the morning, I went to drone meditation at Tempo Rubato, spending an hour immersing myself in live drone music. I usually take along my musical saw to participate, but this time I relieved myself of even that responsibility and went as a passive enjoyer.

Then lunch at Very Good Falafel, which brings together my favourite food in one of my favourite places. After that, I leaned further into the vibe - hanging out in a very Brunswick cafe. Then in the evening I was back at Tempo Rubato watching another gig, and a 3km walk either side. Good ingredients for a rest and recharge.

Loops and drones

It was nice to be at Tempo Rubato twice in one day. The evening gig was to see two solo artists - Clariloops and Willebrant using loopers to create music. I was particularly interested to see Willebrant as he plays double bass, so I was keen to see how he went about it all. I really enjoyed the show and was impressed by their skills and musicality.

The one thing it made me realise about me and my taste is that I prefer things that are more weird and edgy and perhaps a bit less predictable. There’s no right and wrong in the world of music, and it’s just nice to hear different approaches and styles and to reflect on the type of thing that I enjoy and want to do.

It prompted me to go back to my bootleg recording of The Necks concert that I attended a few weeks ago and really gave me an appreciation of how masterful they are at the craft - with the qualification that they don’t use loopers of any sort, they just create that sound organically. The sense of discordant weirdness they conjure really works for me.