---
title: Things I know and things I don't
date: "2025-05-04T11:03:53Z"
lastmod: "2025-05-04T11:03:54Z"
categories:
  - funny
  - llms
wp_id: 4091
description: "People often know some everyday quantities with uncanny precision while being wildly wrong about others, and that asymmetry says as much about attention as about memory."
keywords: [self-knowledge, estimation, attention, everyday cognition, comic strips, AI images]
---

![Things I know and things I don't](/blog/assets/image-3.webp)

We all have stuff we know well and don't. I know the % charge on my phone to within a few percent and the current time to within a few minutes -- no matter when you ask. But I have no idea how much money there is in my pocket.

| Things I know within 5% error | Things I get wrong by ~500%       |
| ----------------------------- | --------------------------------- |
| Current time                  | Time to finish my current task    |
| My weight                     | My next meal                      |
| % charge on my phone          | How long the phone will last      |
| Number of unread emails       | Time to clear them                |
| Price of my next earphones    | Cash in my wallet                 |
| Length of this list           | How long it will go before I stop |

But this apart, it turns out generating [xkcd](https://xkcd.com/) style comic strips is harder than I thought.

- [ChatGPT refuses outright](https://chatgpt.com/share/68144337-34e4-800c-ba23-750325dc8987)
- [Grok can't draw, only edit](https://x.com/i/grok/share/0QuNd4Sh5BXBF9KahcC2sQdu7)
- [Grok doesn't edit well either](https://x.com/i/grok/share/droO2hL9NDDGiiBu2yvAhuQKI)
- [Claude tried to write a program that misses the font AND the wavy lines](https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/ec243d9d-f8d2-4d5c-a957-6ff6c27b2f96)

[Gemini Flash 2.0 (Image Generation) Experimental gets it mostly right](https://aistudio.google.com/app/prompts?state=%7B%22ids%22:%5B%221zCFA1sCQNumfw9KIe4HQxj7phHncYPHr%22%5D,%22action%22:%22open%22,%22userId%22:%22108207362455575853987%22,%22resourceKeys%22:%7B%7D%7D), though.

[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7323922284618952705)