5.1.1 - Would You Start This Today?

Run the continue test: say whether it still earns its place, what it costs you in a normal week and which of the three answers comes next.

Continue test

Nothing is wrong with it. That is not the same as it earning its place.

The call

Run the continue test on a date, while things are fine. Whether something should still exist is a question you answer badly under pressure and well on a quiet Tuesday.

Sharpen the continue test with AI

This is a Close idea, so the AI move is Run it for real. You can sharpen the decision here, but it only means anything against something that is actually running.

New here? Let your AI do this with you. Paste your problem into Guide me and it builds a prompt that walks you through this in ChatGPT or Claude. You do not need to know how to prompt.

Prefer to drive the AI yourself? Give ChatGPT or Claude this page and ask it to help. For skill.txt, the Claude Code plugin and other ways in, see how to use vibe2value.

Or copy this prompt into AI chat, replace the bracketed lines with your real project and keep the instruction exactly as visible here. It helps you put your continue.md together by refining your three lines until somebody who did not build this could act on them.

You are checking whether this should still exist, or whether it is only still running.

Constraint:
The answer must be one of three: start again, pause with a named condition that unpauses it, or stop. Still going is not one of them.

Example of the standard:
Vague: "It is ticking along fine, I will keep an eye on it."
Sharp: "It costs me the mailbox, the storage and the model calls, and four people use it. I would still start it today, so it stays until a month goes by with nobody sending."
The sharp version has the running cost, who is actually using it and a door it walks through. The vague one has none of them.

Working draft:
Still earns its place: [why, in one line]
What it costs you: [the real weekly cost]
What happens next: [start again, pause with a trigger, or stop]

Task:
Decide whether these three lines pick one of the three answers. If they leave it running by default, say so and rewrite them to meet the standard above.

Check:
- If it were not already running, would you build it today?
- Is the weekly cost a number, or a feeling?
- Does the answer name a door, or leave it open?

Return:
- Verdict: start again, pause, stop, or not decided
- The corrected three lines
- The part of the cost that is not being counted

Copy this into AI chat. Replace the bracketed parts. Keep the rest unchanged. AI will likely suggest refinements based on what you enter. Use those to sharpen your thinking, not replace it.

The test needs something to read before it can be answered. That is Where do you stop, for now? plus How would you know if any of this worked?.

The same idea on a recipe card

A kitchen does not wait until it is failing to look at the menu. Every so often you take a dish and ask whether it earns its place. Would you put it on if it were not already there.

Three answers come back. It comes off. It waits for the season. Or it goes back on, cooked differently. The one thing that is not an answer is leaving it there because it is already there.

The recipe card is just a simple example, using everyday cooking ideas everyone understands, to make the concept clear. See the recipe card.

What it really means

Every stage before this one asks whether the thing is good. This one asks whether it should exist. Those are different questions, and the second one almost never gets asked because nothing ever arrives to ask it.

A project that is running does not send you a prompt. It takes twenty minutes here and an evening there, and the cost stays invisible because it is spread so thin. Inertia is not a decision, but it produces the same result as one.

So the test goes on a date. Would you start this today, knowing what you now know? If the answer is no, you are not maintaining it. You are only not stopping it.

Make the continue test concrete

Compare the version that sounds responsible with the version somebody could act on.

Too vague: It is ticking along fine, I will keep an eye on it.
Concrete enough to test: It costs me the mailbox, the storage and the model calls, and four people use it. I would still start it today, so it stays until a month goes by with nobody sending.

The second version has a cost, a user count and a door in it. The first has none of the three, which is how a thing stays on the list for years.

Both versions come from consideredContent, the one project carried through all 35 ideas. See the project.

Three answers, and all three are real. There is a fourth path that is not drawn here, because it is not a door: carrying on unchanged because it is already running. That is what happens when nobody asks the question, and it is the only outcome you never actually chose.

Check the continue test

Pass: You can say whether you would start it today, what it costs you in a normal week and which of the three answers comes next: start again, pause with a trigger, or stop.
Fail: It keeps running because it is already running.

Inertia is the only answer that is not an answer.

What you'll walk away with

This post is about the closing decision: whether the thing should still exist at all. You'll come out with your own continue.md carrying an honest weekly cost, a straight answer to whether you would start it today and which of the three doors you are walking through.

Write it down

Your continue.md is a real file in your project. The AI forgets everything between sessions. It reads this file each time to pick up what you already decided, on this idea or another part of the build. Write it down once instead of explaining it again.

knowledge-base/product/continue.md is just a suggested name and place for this information. Call the file and put it wherever suits your project. What matters is that it is written down in a format that is easily understood by both people and the AI.

Risk and mitigation

Risk: Projects survive on inertia rather than on merit, and the cost stays invisible because it is spread thin across every week.
Mitigation: Put the test on a date and run it while nothing is wrong. The answer is only honest when nothing is forcing it.

Key takeaway

If you would not start it today, you are not maintaining it. You are just not stopping it.

How to document your continue test

Write it up in full so your AI has the whole picture: the answer, why you believe it, what you are optimising for, where you might be wrong and the standing instruction it should follow. Keep it in a file with your project like this.

# Continue test

## Answer
Still earns its place: [why, in one line]
What it costs you: [the real weekly cost]
What happens next: [start again, pause with a trigger, or stop]

## Evidence
What it has actually cost you in the last month, not what you meant it to.

## Decision
Which of the three answers you picked, and the date you will ask again.

## Risk
What breaks if this is wrong.

## Standing instruction
What the AI should do every time it touches this. For example: if I ask for something new on a project marked pause or stop, say so before building it.