Things I've built on the side

Web apps, games, music tools and research side projects, mostly outside my work on The Unjournal. Many started as quick experiments built with AI coding agents. A few are now in regular use.

Music

Tools for practising, studying and finding jazz.

App

Blues Flow

Play and study 18 versions of the 12-bar blues in any key, from the basic three-chord form to Charlie Parker's 'Bird' changes.

Source

Experiment

Can AI write a modern jazz tune?

Claude and GPT coding agents each composed modern jazz tunes over two rounds. Listen, read the charts and vote before seeing the results.

Listings

Local jazz calendar

Jazz concerts and jam sessions within about an hour of Monson or Framingham, Massachusetts.

Listings

Exeter Jazz Calendar

Source-linked jazz concerts and sessions in Exeter and nearby Devon towns reachable by public transport, with a calendar feed and ways to suggest a gig.

Browse events

App

Jazz Practice Hub

Repertoire tracker, setlist builder, 12-key technique grid, practice-plan generator and metronome drills in one page.

Games and everyday tools

Things for playing, learning, borrowing and scheduling.

Game

Word Bocce

A word game played in meaning-space. Add and subtract words to roll your ball toward a target word; word-vector similarity decides who is closest. Daily puzzles, practice and two-player Versus.

For teachersHow it works (slides)Source

Gamefor kids

Math Estimator

Estimation games for kids and curious adults: numbers, prices, fractions, Fermi problems and big real-world facts, with sourced, up-to-date figures. Works offline; answers stay on your device. Original idea by Nesim Sisa.

Search

Library of Things finder

Search about 2,000 tools, tech and gear you can borrow from public libraries and tool-lending libraries, starting in Massachusetts and spreading across the US.

Source

Appprototype

Meeting scheduler

Offer candidate times, share one link, watch responses come in and pick the best slot. Built for Unjournal team meetings.

App

Who's available

A shared room where people say when they're free for a chat and how to reach them. No account needed; make a room for any group.

Ideas and proposals

Short, sourced pitches for things I think someone should try. Feedback and collaborators welcome.

Course

AI Foundations for Research Judgment

How language models work, for researchers who have to judge their output: tokens, measurement, evidence workflows, compute economics and safety.

Research and giving

Research tools and write-ups on effective giving, research evaluation and prioritization. Close to The Unjournal, but not part of its core tools.

Directory

Impact Products Directory

Search organizations and products connected to substantial charitable giving. Every entry links to the original claim, its source and a confidence rating.

Source

Paper and site

Just Ask the Model

Co-authored study comparing one-shot LLM evaluations of social-science research with structured expert review.

Interactive explainerAI-generated

Prioritization ML Lab

AI-generated teaching simulations (by Claude, at my request, July 2026) of preference learning, reward models, calibration and active learning, made to help design The Unjournal's research-prioritization pipeline.

Web book

Increasing effective giving

The puzzle of why people don't give more effectively, what the evidence says, and what we still need to learn.

Teaching and methods notes

Open course notes and small methods tools, mostly from my university teaching.

Unjournal tools

Public dashboards, models and workshop resources from The Unjournal. The tools hub has the full list.

Dashboard

Research prioritization

Browse research candidates for Unjournal evaluation, compare human and AI-assisted priority ratings, and suggest papers.

Modelexploratory

Cultured chicken cost model

Explore how biological and engineering assumptions affect cultured-chicken production costs. Includes simpler and advanced models, sources and critique notes; outputs need expert validation.

Forecasting dashboard

Animal Futures

Source-linked updates on animal-welfare forecasts, participation and discussion, alongside a reviewable bank of forecasting questions.

Question bankTournament

Workshop hub

Pivotal Questions workshops

Public workshop resources on cultivated meat, wellbeing and plant-based substitution, with summaries, models and follow-up discussion.