Make AI report like it owes you a number

By the end of this track you will have

1. Step 1Last month's AI-drafted report rewritten so line one says what changed, with its number, and the last lines ask the reader for one decision.
2. Step 2Every adjective in your report replaced by its figure or cut, and the findings laid out as how many, where they came from, and what the reader does about it.
3. Step 3A rerun line under every figure in your report, and proof that somebody else followed those lines cold and landed on the same numbers.
4. Step 4An instruction that makes your AI print unknown, with one reason and one next check, whenever a source fails, and a test run that proves it does.
5. Step 5One report shape written into your AI's standing instruction, and two drafts from it that pass the same five checks without a single hand edit.

The steps

Each one ends with a check you run yourself. The box is yours to tick when it passes.

1. 1
   Step 1.Line one is the outcome

   30 minutesOpen to everyone

   Done means

   Give the rewritten report to someone who has not seen the accounts. Let them read it for ten seconds, then take it away. They must say back two things: the outcome with its number, and the choice you need from them. If they say back the background, line one is still background. Rewrite and try again.

   The check passed
2. 2
   Step 2.Numbers, not adjectives

   40 minutes

   Done means

   Open the finished report and use Find to search it for each banned word. Zero hits, apart from inside longer words such as almost or plots. Then pick three lines that carry a figure. Each one also holds what that figure is compared with, in the same line. A line missing its comparison gets one added or gets cut, and you search again.

   The check passed
3. 3
   Step 3.Show the command so anyone can rerun it

   45 minutes

   Done means

   The person who did not write the report picks two figures and follows the rerun lines with no help from you. Both come back identical to the report, to the order and to the penny. If they have to ask you one question, write the answer into that rerun line and into the instruction, then repeat with two different figures.

   The check passed
4. 4
   Step 4.Unknown is an answer

   30 minutes

   Done means

   With one export held back, the draft prints that figure as unknown, gives the reason in one clause and names a check that would settle it. It does not print zero, no change, a dash, a guess or nothing at all, and no total further down still includes it. With the export back, the same line carries its figure. If the held-back source vanished from the report without a trace, the instruction is not holding. Move it to the top and run again.

   The check passed
5. 5
   Step 5.One report shape, every time

   45 minutes

   Done means

   Two drafts, for two different clients, from the saved instruction and no other prompting, score ten out of ten on the five checks. Put them side by side and the six labels appear in both, in the same order. Neither draft was touched by hand. If you changed a single word to get there, that word belongs in the instruction. Add it and run both again.

   The check passed