Eight steps to sort what an AI conversation is about
Use this with any set of notes. A page and a pen are enough, or give it to an AI assistant with your notes. The same worksheet is in the guide and in the kit as Markdown. If you change one, change all three.
| Step | Ask | Write |
|---|---|---|
1. Name the subject |
What is the thing itself, not the filename or the person who mentioned it? |
The subject’s name |
2. Identity |
Is it one independently identifiable person, organization, legal entity, place, or physical unit? |
Candidate Eidolon |
3. Job |
Was it deliberately made to do a job: a product, service, system, workflow, or capability? |
Candidate Ergon |
4. Meaning |
Is it a claim, question, principle, theory, method, or idea someone could support, challenge, or falsify? |
Candidate Noema |
5. Split |
Does one phrase name several things, such as a company, its product, one installation, and a belief? |
One line per thing |
6. Connect |
Who develops, owns, operates, buys, uses, tests, supports, or contradicts what? |
Direction, verb, start date, end date if any |
7. Evidence and time |
What is known, who said it, when was it true, what contradicts it, what is unknown? |
Source, date, label |
8. Decide |
Does the record improve a question, workflow, test, conclusion, or choice? |
Keep, or drop |
None of the three? It needs another kind of record: a document, an event, a single claim, an outcome, or a legal right. Unsure? Say so and ask a person. Do not choose a kind only to finish.
Labels for any statement: observation, evidence, hypothesis, inference, recommendation, or unknown. An observation or evidence names its source.
States for an idea on a date: proposed, under investigation, supported, contested, falsified, superseded. There is no state called proven.