Such a tool …
Last week I spent extended time with every robot I could get my hands on. I hoped, using a powerful search engine would solve my problem. My problem: During a scheduled update to the Linux hosting platform of my website’s host between August 24th and 28th “they” dropped the ball. I lost the connection to my website the moment I got ready to receive visitors interested in my presentation about the workshop I offer.
Those clever bots are a mixed bag, let me tell you. They let you check this and that, make assumptions, come up with a bunch of guesswork, and don’t even read carefully the information you’re providing them, willingly, carefully. All of this makes them appear human. Like giving you a bunch of options and then asking you open-ended questions. You have to answer in full sentences in order not to confuse the machine, instead of just typing: “Yes, that’s it. Thanks.” or “No, not it. Try again.”
At some point I had to put my foot down and tell them, “No, I’m not following you down another rabbit hole. There has to be another way.” Of course there was, “Right!”
Most annoyingly, once they present you with their answer “Got it!” they are done. Sure, they offer to do the work they cut out for you as well. They take you by the hand like a three year old while claiming to know it all. This made me feel like I was in the presence of yet another man who blusters with the tired old “Don’t worry, I got you.”
But what they didn’t get and what they’ll never have, is what I have sitting in my head: This amazing brain that works tirelessly and entirely on its own, behind the scenes, while I’m sleeping.
After three days, I woke up with a clear plan to solve the issue. It was Saturday morning and it dawned on me how human brains are different from these engines that are so often confused with thinking machines.
After hours of poking around, learning things I didn’t know I needed to know, my brain kept searching for a solution while I took a break. I know you’ve had that experience as well, trying to remember a name, searching for it in your rolodex–not sure anyone still has that kind of thing–only to give up on the name, the person and your memory. Then, standing in line for a movie, suddenly, without you even asking, without looking into your chatbox, the name pops up. Clear as day in your mind. Your brain delivered the information the moment it found it.
During my three days of fighting digital windmills I had hoped to be greeted with the solution. Why didn’t I call customer service? To this day no human has responded to my pleas for help. The worst part: the artificial customer service my host had installed on their site, this tool, was worse than any of the engines out there in the wild.
Yeah, I love my brain, and once it gave me the answer to my question, I asked the engine to check the manual so I would know how to fix this myself.
Oh, in case you’re wondering, what’s the new workshop?
From Screen to Novel runs from October 13 to November 17, 2026 and it is limited to five people.
Click here:
