Reading Digest
This week's papers worth reading, each explained in three lines.
Preview
Sample output, example data. All names, numbers, sources, and links are fictional and only show what the skill produces.
Reading digest · AI agents, urban planning · week of Oct 26, 2026
47 items reviewed, 5 picked
1. Agents that ask before acting make fewer costly mistakes
L. Fernandez et al. · Preprint · Oct 27 · ~25 min read
What: The authors tested AI agents on 300 simulated office tasks, with and without a rule to ask before risky steps. Found: Asking cut serious errors by about half and added roughly one question per task. Why it matters: It's evidence that approval steps don't make agents unusably slow.
Caveat: simulated tasks only; not peer reviewed.
Read
2. What happened when a mid-sized city removed parking minimums
Example Urban Institute · Report · Oct 29 · ~18 min read
What: A five-year look at housing permits after a (fictional) city dropped parking requirements. Found: Small apartment buildings on narrow lots rose 34%, while street parking complaints stayed flat. Why it matters: Clean before-and-after data on a policy many cities are debating.
Caveat: one city; other changes happened at the same time.
Read
(Items 3–5 omitted in this preview.)
Also out this week
- A benchmark for agents booking travel, useful dataset, thin analysis
- Essay: the case for slower streets, well written, no new data
What you get
5 things · The 3–10 most worthwhile new items on your topics
- The 3–10 most worthwhile new items on your topics
- Plain-language what / found / why it matters
- An honest caveat for each
- Preprint vs peer-reviewed clearly marked
- An 'also out this week' list
Make it yours
5 settings · Topics, Sources, Items per digest, Explain for, When
- arXiv (default)
- bioRxiv / medRxiv
- SSRN
- Journals (default)
- Newsletters (default)
- My read-later list
- Specific blogs
- 3
- 5 (default)
- 10
- Beginner
- Informed non-specialist (default)
- Expert
- Weekly (Friday) (default)
- Daily
- Monthly
Data sources
1 required, 1 optional · Web search, Read-later app (Readwise, Instapaper…
About
Reading Digest scans preprint servers, journals, and the writers you…
Reading Digest scans preprint servers, journals, and the writers you trust for the week's new work on your topics. It reads past the abstract, picks the handful worth your time, and explains each in three sentences: what they did, what they found, and why it matters. Every pick gets one honest caveat, such as not peer reviewed or a small sample, so you know how much weight to give it.
