“Search the internet and verify before answering.”
Shortcut taken. Nothing tells you.It went and checked.
A2
Which model, and how hard it thinks
15 minutes
In pictures, no maths
What's inside a model
Neurons, wired together in layers. That is the whole idea.
Bigger network, bigger model. More neurons, more connections, more it can hold onto at once.
0neurons
0connections
Tap any neuron on the left to send a signal.
The names change. The three jobs do not
Three models, three jobs
Fast
Bulk work, reformatting, the same field out of sixty files.
General
Where most of your work belongs. Start here.
Deep
Real analysis, and anything holding a lot at once.
Which one gets the job? Tap one.
Every tool has the same two controls
The same choice, in every tool
Escalate only when you need to
Choosing between them
1
Start on the general one
Where most of your work belongs.
2
Regenerate with thinking on
Same model, more working-out.
3
Move up to the deep one
Only when the answer is still thin.
Know what each step costs you.
Time1×
Allowance1×
Do not burn the deep one on basic emails. This is where people waste their allowance.
It works the problem through before answering
Extended thinking
“We can hold stock of our three most-ordered play panels, or make them to order. Which, and why?”
✦ Thinking
On or off? Tap a job.
Open the thinking and read it. It teaches you how to ask.
Before you rewrite anything
If an answer feels thin, regenerate with thinking on before you rewrite the prompt.
The answerThin
A3
Setting yourself up
10 minutes
Do these once, before anything else
Two things before anything else
01
Approved tools, on the company account.The account type matters.
02
Custom instructions:your role, your audience, how much detail.
03
Written once in settings.Applies everywhere, forever.
Build your standing brief ✓ Applies to every chat
I work in
Writing for
Detail
Settings → General
Where this lives, in Claude
Tap each one
Worth knowing
A paid plan buys usage and access, not a cleverer model+
Usage
Access
The model
A4
Context and memory
15 minutes
The LLM as a box
It only speaks textAll of it, every time
Your messageThe file you attachedEverything said so farTurns 1–3, re-read in full
LLM
Its reply
0tokens read this turn
Whatever goes in, whatever comes out, it is all just text.
The bigger that gets, the more flows through here, every single turn.
Everything is tokens
How the limit gets counted
01
Everything is tokens:what you type, attach, and get back.
02
The whole conversation is re-read on every turn.That is why long chats get slow.
03
The window is large.Accuracy on buried detail still falls before the limit.
Pieces, not words
0tokens0words
Drag the detail through the window
Start of the chatIllustrativeLatest message
0%chance the detail is picked up
What summarising quietly loses
Long sessions lose things
01
Past a point, the earlier partis compressed to a summary.
02
Gone:exact figures, precise wording, a correction made in passing.
03
The tellis it asking you something you already answered.
04
Anything that must survive goes in a file,not the chat.
Context used
Saved by topic, scoped to your account, on by default
Memory
01
Saved by topic,scoped to your account, on by default.
02
Three conversations in week one:your work, your style, your projects.
03
A wrong fact remembered confidentlyis worse than no memory.
04
Read it, edit it, delete from it.Incognito stores nothing.
What it remembers
Incognito. Nothing stored.
Settings → Memory
What that looks like
Tick them off
Three habits and you are done
That is it. You are done.
A5
When it makes things up
15 minutes
Three answers. Which would you trust?
Why wrong answers look right
Illustrative scores. The format gave nothing away.
The format is always convincing.A clause number has a shape.
Specifics are the danger,not the vagueness.
It will not hedgeunless you ask.
Being correcteddoes not fix the next answer.
Our three risk zones
Where this hurts us
Three things that work
What actually helps
01
Give it permission not to know.Say so rather than guessing.
02
A citation is a lead, not evidence.Open it and read the page.
03
Verify at source.Not in a second chat.
Which clause of BS EN 1176-1 sets the free height of fall for a rope climber?If you are not sure, say so rather than guessing.
The page it citedA general overview of playground safety standards. No clause number for free height of fall appears on this page.
The test
Would you sign your name on it without opening another tab?
✕Sign here with your finger
New tab
If you needed to open this, it was not ready to sign.
A6
Asking properly
20 minutes
A search query is not a brief
Treat it as a new colleague with no context.
Knows what you mean5%
“Sure. What is this for?”
?
Tap each block into the prompt
The four blocks
Your prompt
Empty. Tap a block on the left.
QualityA guess
Attach it. Separate it. Tag it
Give it the real thing
01
Attach the file.Do not describe it.
02
Give it the whole document,not your summary of it.
03
Separate the brief from the material.Sections, not one paragraph.
04
Wrap sections in tagsso it knows which is which.
So basically the school sent a spec, it's about 50 pages, the main thing is they want the climbing frame to be for ages 5 to 11 and I think there was something about shade and the budget, anyway can you check our proposal against it and tell me what we've missed, keep it short, and the proposal is the one we did for the other school but updated.
<brief>Check our proposal against the school's spec. List every requirement we have missed, as a table: requirement, spec page, what to change.</brief><spec>PDFAlNoor-Tender-Spec.pdf · 50 pages</spec><proposal>PDFKidzink-Proposal-v3.pdf</proposal>
One paragraph, material described
Tap the adjectives. Watch them average out
Show, do not describe
01
Adjectives contradict each otherand average into mush.
02
One example of our own writingbeats any description of our tone.
03
Say why, not just what.A rule with a reason travels further.
04
More constraints, better writing.They stop it guessing.
Pick some adjectives for our tone of voice.
Author, then editor
Work in steps
01
Ask for the plan firston anything long.
02
Long jobs in steps, not one prompt.Check as you go.
03
The first answer is a draft.
04
Draft, critique, revise.Author, then editor.
Tap to startGo round the loop
Still wrong? Tap a card
Debug the prompt
Drag across to compare
Live: before and after
The lazy ask
check this proposal
What comes back
This proposal looks well structured and covers the main points. You may want to review pricing and timelines, and make sure it aligns with client expectations.
All four blocks
Instructions: check our proposal against the attached spec. Context: Al Noor primary, ages 5–11, fixed budget. Task: list every requirement we missed. Output format: a table: requirement, spec page, fix.
What comes back
| Shade over the climbing zone | p.14 | add a sail canopy to 3.2 | | Age 5–11 split | p.9 | separate the junior zone | | Surfacing depth | p.22 | state depth under the frame |
Two requirements need the client to confirm.
⟷
The lazy askFour blocks
Same modelSame fileSame minute
Hold the button and talk
Say it, do not type it
01
Push a key, speak,the text lands wherever your cursor is.
02
TypeWhisper:open source, runs offline on your own machine.
03
Free for dictation.No subscription, no cloud round-trip.
04
Faster than typing a long brief.The four blocks still apply.
Speaking~150 wpm
Typing~40 wpm
A7
Data rules
5 minutes
Drag or tap each one
What may go near these tools
Fine
Our drawings, generic specs, marketing copy, published standards.
Ask first
Client contracts, pricing, employee data, NDA material, ID scans.
Ask first is a fast path, not a refusal. One message.
