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 | AI for the Rest of Us One Thing I Learned |
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| This week I watched a short IBM video on something called context engineering. Big words, simple idea. Here it is as a story. |
| Imagine you hire a new helper for your bakery. She's smart and fast, and she carries a notebook everywhere. Everything she learns goes in the notebook. Before she does anything, she reads it. |
| That notebook is how AI works. It's called "context." It's everything the AI is looking at while it helps you. And there are four ways a good helper with a notebook goes wrong. |
1. She writes down something wrong. On Monday, someone tells her the store opens at nine. It opens at eight. She writes it down, and all week she tells every customer "nine." One wrong note keeps spreading. The fix: check it before it goes in the notebook. |
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2. Her notebook gets too long. By Friday the notebook is two hundred pages. A customer asks a simple question, and she's busy flipping through old pages instead of looking at the person in front of her. The fix: once in a while, write a one-page summary and put the old notebook on the shelf. |
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3. She has too many tools on her belt. You gave her forty tools, just in case. Now when she needs a spatula she grabs a whisk. The fix: give her only the tools for today's job. |
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4. Two notes disagree. Page three says "close at five." Page forty says "close at six." Which one is true? She guesses. The fix: when you write a new rule, cross out the old one. |
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| Check it. Sum it up. Trim the tools. Cross out the old. |
| Here's the part that matters most. The helper never runs the bakery. You do. Your craft, your judgment and your people are the business. AI is the helper with the notebook, and someone has to look after that notebook. In the companies I work with, that's a job your team does, not a job the machine replaces. |
| Want to talk about your business? |
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| How about you? | | › | Who checks what your AI writes down before it gets used again? | | › | When did you last start a fresh conversation instead of adding to an old one? | | › | How many tools is your AI carrying that today’s job does not need? | | › | When a rule changes in your business, who crosses out the old one? |
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| So this week, ask yourself: who in my business is looking after the notebook? |
| Written with Claude, my AI assistant. |
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