A few of us work on what we're stuck on, Wednesdays at 5:30pm

Ways to run it for real

Once it is live, running it for real is its own kind of AI work. These are the moves that keep a live system honest. Unlike the on-ramps to Sharpen, you combine these rather than pick one.

Hold the contextKnow when to step inFail wellReview with fresh eyesA live systemyou can putyour name on
These four are a set, not a sequence, and you combine them. A live system that holds its context, knows when to step in, fails well and gets reviewed with fresh eyes is one you can put your name on.

Hold the context

Anything important that lives only in the chat is at risk, because a long conversation gets compacted as it grows and a summary blurs the precise things, the amounts, the dates and the decisions. Hold the context →

Know when to step in

Decide in advance what AI handles and what comes to you. Know when to step in →

Fail well

Make failures surface clearly, with enough context to recover, instead of being swallowed or guessed around. Fail well →

Review with fresh eyes

Have a second, independent AI pass look at the work without the context that built it. Review with fresh eyes →

Putting it together

These are not a sequence, they are a set. A live system that holds its context, knows when to step in, fails well and gets reviewed with fresh eyes is one you can put your name on.

Part of Working with AI.
These moves run across the Launch ideas.
The soft skills behind them: The soft skills of working with AI.

Why Claude. We use Claude Code in the notes above because it is one of the most widely used AI tools for building software. It is also what we build with day to day. The moves themselves are general and carry across to other capable AI tools.