There's a popular idea floating around that AI is your "second brain." We need to talk about why that framing is actually holding people back. Here's the problem: When you think of AI as a second brain, you expect it to remember everything, connect dots automatically, and somehow store all your context without you having to explain anything. Then you get frustrated when it doesn't know what you talked about yesterday or forgets the details of your business halfway through a conversation. That's not AI's fault. That's a broken expectation. What AI actually is: AI is more like having a ridiculously talented intern who shows up fresh every single time. No memory of yesterday. No context about your business unless you provide it. But incredibly fast, willing to help with anything, and capable of producing solid work if you give them clear direction. Once you understand that, everything changes. Examples of this shift: Tom runs a marketing agency and was annoyed that ChatGPT kept forgetting his brand voice. He'd explain it, get great content, then the next day have to re-explain everything. He felt like he was wasting time. Then he realized: just save the explanation. Now he starts every session by pasting a 3-sentence description of his brand voice. Takes 10 seconds. Problem solved. Angela manages operations for a nonprofit and wanted AI to "remember" all her donor segments and communication preferences. It kept mixing things up. She was ready to quit until someone suggested creating a simple reference document. Now she drops that context into every conversation. The output is consistently better because she stopped expecting AI to have memory it doesn't have. Rachel creates content for e-commerce brands and was frustrated explaining product details over and over. She thought AI should "learn" her clients. Instead, she built a simple template with client info, target audience, and key messaging. Now she copies it into each new chat. What felt like a limitation became a strength because the template forced her to clarify things she'd been keeping fuzzy in her own head.