System2Chrome extension
Your external rational brain
Recommendation feeds don’t show you what you most want to see. They show you what you are least likely to dislike. As you browse videos and posts, System2 tells you whether each one is something you actually want to see.
Under Chrome Web Store review. To install: unzip it, open chrome://extensions in Chrome, turn on “Developer mode” at the top right, click “Load unpacked” and choose the unzipped folder.
- Most want to see
- Want to see
- Indifferent
- Prefer not to see
- Least want to see
Every label is shown in both color and words. When the call is unclear, the page is marked Uncertain rather than forced into a label.
Why “one more” turns into an hour
A feed measures success by whether you keep watching, not by whether it was worth it. One “good enough” clip follows another until the time is gone, and when you finally stop, it often feels like a waste.
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman described two modes of thinking: System 1 is fast and intuitive, System 2 is slow and deliberate. Scrolling a feed is System 1’s home ground. System2 is named after the other one: you decide what you want while you are clear-headed, and it checks each page against that in the moment.
How it works
- Set your rules while clear-headed. Name the topics you want and don’t want, such as “game design” or “celebrity gossip”, and give each a tier. Or use Strict (allowlist) or Relaxed (blocklist) mode.
- Browse as usual. Each time you open a video or post, the extension reads it in your browser and a model decides which of your topics it belongs to.
- Glance at the label. A small marker on the page and the toolbar icon show the result, and “Least want to see” also sends a notification. It reminds, never blocks; whether to keep going is up to you. If a label is wrong, fix it in one click.
Where it works
- Bilibili and YouTube videos, including YouTube Shorts as you swipe through them, judged from their subtitles
- X and Reddit posts: the post itself, not the comments
- Articles on news sites, blogs, Zhihu and WeChat official accounts
Home pages, feeds and search results are not analyzed; it decides once you open a specific item. Desktop Chrome only for now.
Cost
Bring your own TypeSafe API key. Your TypeSafe account pays for the requests directly, with no markup from System2. New installs include a small free trial (up to 100 analyses per install, paused when the platform budget runs out).
Privacy
- Auto-analysis is off until you turn it on, and it never runs in incognito windows.
- Search results, feeds, sign-in and payment pages, and known sensitive sites are skipped. You can exclude any other site too.
- Only the trimmed text, title and similar page details plus your topic definitions are sent. Never the full URL, cookies, form contents or your browsing history.
- The System2 service does not store page text, URLs, your topics or your API key. Topics, settings and results stay in your browser.
Read the full privacy policy →
The model
System2’s judgments use the Jev model from TypeSafe.ai. System2 is an independent project with no partnership or affiliation with TypeSafe.