Summary Classical discrete‐time adaptive controllers typically provide asymptotic stabilization and tracking; usually the affect of the noise is at best bounded‐input bounded‐output. Recently we have shown that if you design a discrete‐time adaptive controller in just the right way, then in a variety of situations you not only obtain exponential stability, but also a bounded gain on the noise in every p−norm, as well as a never‐before‐seen linear‐like convolution bound on the input–output behavior. Quite surprisingly, the approach is very natural, and relies on the use of the unmodified, original projection algorithm to carry out parameter estimation; if the set of plant uncertainty is not convex, then a multi‐estimator and switching are used. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of the approach, discuss the results‐to‐date, and list some of the open problems.