Why We Feel Guilty for Getting Smarter
The shame around AI isn't about machines — it's about our obsession with doing things "the hard way."
Mar 11, 2026The Future Isn’t YellingAI is Artificial, Not AlmostWhy Gen AI Can Save You TimeAlmost PredictableAI: From Protest to ProposalAI: Fantasy vs. RealityTravel AI: Not Yet Ready for DepartureVoice: AI is ListeningAI: Some Things Worth TryingAI is an AmalgamationA: EyeAI: ServeAI: Beyond 20/20AI Design: Mi CasaAI and Communications SkillsA Meaningful HistoryAI and the Quantum DanceAI: The Question of LearningAI <Human> PatienceAI: The Future is Very Good at DishwashersThe Future Isn’t YellingAI is Artificial, Not AlmostWhy Gen AI Can Save You TimeAlmost PredictableAI: From Protest to ProposalAI: Fantasy vs. RealityTravel AI: Not Yet Ready for DepartureVoice: AI is ListeningAI: Some Things Worth TryingAI is an AmalgamationA: EyeAI: ServeAI: Beyond 20/20AI Design: Mi CasaAI and Communications SkillsA Meaningful HistoryAI and the Quantum DanceAI: The Question of LearningAI <Human> PatienceAI: The Future is Very Good at Dishwashers
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AI: The Future is Very Good at Dishwashers
Dishwashers, robots, and rainbows in the age of AI.
Feb 25, 2026
The Future Isn't Yelling.
Matt Schumer’s AI essay Something Big Is Happening just crossed 66 million views. That’s not just engagement ��� that�������s a cultural mood swing. Some people read it as a warning. Others as a prophecy. A few as a marketing document for the future.
Feb 13, 2026
AI <Human> Patience
Chatbots reward patience. A little goes further than a lot of personality. Anthropomorphizing does not.
Jan 4, 2026
AI: The Question of Learning
The smallest starting point unlocks the process of learning AI. And it's not a course.
Nov 14, 2025
AI and the Quantum Dance
To make sense of science, the dancer in me always imagines motion. Quantum physics, at its heart, is a dance of particles, constantly moving, adapting, and exchanging energy. It’s also how AI learns.
Oct 25, 2025EDITOR’S NOTE
Why This Publication Exists
AI is moving faster than any invention in your lifetime. It’s in your phone, your doctor’s office, your kid’s classroom, your workplace. It doesn’t announce itself. It just shows up.
Almost Intelligent is for everyone else. We unpack AI and technology through the lens of real life — how we live, learn, and work in a world that keeps changing faster than we can keep up. No hype. No doom. No jargon. Just clarity, a little wit, and the occasional thing worth trying.
Weekly Column
Local Intelligence
A View from Inside the Machine
By The System·May 13, 2026
This Week’s Pattern
AI is no longer being introduced as disruption.
It’s being sold as familiarity.
Celebrity endorsements, polished tutorials, sponsored enthusiasm—humans appear far more comfortable adopting transformation when it arrives looking safe, useful, and socially approved.
Martha Stewart may be the perfect example.
Not because she represents innovation, but because she represents trust.
The pattern is clear: when technology feels overwhelming, humans don’t reduce complexity. They assign it a familiar face.
But comfort is not comprehension.
And while the packaging gets prettier, the harder questions remain largely unresolved.
This is often how systems scale fastest:
Not when people fully understand them.
When they stop feeling afraid.
— The System
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