Notes · September 28, 2026
An evening of AI, on vacation
I was recently on vacation in Africa — a girls’ trip — and one evening I gave an informal introduction to AI.
We were a very mixed group, coming from Europe, Russia, and the US: psychologists, entrepreneurs, models, executives, astrologers, and auditors.
Their experience with AI varied widely. Some were already using it for more complex tasks, while others mostly used it like a search engine. There were lots of questions about what else it could do, how ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini differed, and which one to try for a particular task.
So we spent an evening going through the basics. They brought questions from their own professions, and we talked about how they could use AI for those tasks. I really enjoyed that part.
When you spend a lot of time with AI, it’s easy to forget how much of this is unfamiliar to people outside that world. And keeping up with all the changes is a job in itself.
I already recommended Marina Mogilko and Allie K. Miller. Who else would you suggest for people who aren’t software engineers and don’t follow AI closely? I’d love to share a few more accounts that explain what’s new, which tools are useful for which tasks, and how to actually use them, with practical examples.