Imagine you've hired a consultant. They're extraordinary—deeply knowledgeable across almost every domain, articulate, fast, and tireless. There's just one catch.

Every single morning, they wake up with complete amnesia.

They remember nothing about your company. Nothing about the project you discussed yesterday. Nothing about you. Their general knowledge remains intact—they still know how to write code, analyse financial statements, draft legal documents—but anything specific to your situation has vanished.

Each day, you need to brief them from scratch.

This is exactly how large language models work. Understanding this single fact unlocks everything else.