I stopped drinking the AI Kool-Aid

As a child, you drink Kool-Aid. Then somewhere along the way, you stop. Maybe you switch to sugary sodas your parents never let you drink. Realizing it's just sugar water, you switch to a healthier option. For me, it took a little longer to grow up. I had the Kool-Aid jug and matching cups, and even the cycling hat which I wore until the flip up brim fell off. These things brought me happiness, but I always had this unrealistic vision of saving up enough points to get a car, or whatever the actual top-tier reward was back then. My consumption of IRL Kool-Aid dwindled a bit, but it never went to zero. Having a child of my own meant more delusions of grandeur where she'd continue the legacy of saving up points. That was, until the whole program was curtailed. I didn't even bother to try to redeem the points before the final cutoff. One of my longest tenured collections, and the cardboard Tootsie Roll bank from Christmas that one time, tossed in the trash. Low-key, I wish I saved the…