February 5, 2025
Edit (March 12): Some of this was half-baked. I was right about context mattering, but wrong about how to actually implement it. More on that later.
I had a moment last week that made everything click.
I was explaining the same concept to two different people. Same words. Same examples. Completely different reactions.
Person A (my co-founder): “Oh yeah, that makes sense.”
Person B (potential investor): “I don’t get it.”
Same information. Different context. Different outcome.
How Humans Process Information
This is how humans actually work. We don’t process information in a vacuum. We process it through layers of context:
- Who’s saying it
- When they’re saying it
- What we already know about them
- What situation we’re in
It’s obvious once you see it. But most AI systems completely miss this.
The AI Problem
AI agents treat every interaction like it’s the first time. You can tell an AI “I prefer concise answers” on Monday. By Friday, it’s giving you essays again. Not because it forgot—because it doesn’t understand that your preference is contextual.
Here’s what I mean:
When you say “I prefer concise answers,” you don’t mean:
- Always
- In every situation
- Regardless of what I’m asking
You mean:
- For routine questions
- When I’m busy
- Unless I explicitly ask for details
That’s context. And it’s everything.
Why This Matters for Professional Work
I’m building an AI agent that needs to work like a real professional. And professionals are masters of context.
A good accountant knows:
- Client A wants detailed explanations
- Client B just wants the number
- Month-end requires different communication than mid-month
- The CFO’s questions need faster responses than anyone else’s
None of this is written down. It’s learned through experience and stored as contextual beliefs.
The Solution
The breakthrough: Context-conditional beliefs.
Instead of “I believe X is true,” the AI learns “I believe X is true when Y context is present.”
This is how you get AI that actually adapts. Not because you programmed every scenario, but because it learned which beliefs apply in which contexts.
If your AI agent treats every interaction the same way, you’re missing the entire point of how humans actually think.
Context isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation.
What contexts does your AI completely miss?