Today’s Practice
Pick a real multi-step task you have on hand, and hold a conversation with AI for at least 15 turns (one question + one answer = one turn).
Example tasks:
- “Help me plan a family trip (destination, itinerary, budget, packing list)”
- “Help me set up a personal blog from scratch (pick a platform, choose a theme, write the first post)”
- “Help me analyze a career decision (take stock of where I am, pros and cons, action plan)”
Don’t try to steer the conversation deliberately — let it unfold naturally. When the conversation reaches around turn 10, pause and send this message:
“Let’s pause for a moment. What key points have we settled on so far? What questions are still unresolved?”
Copy and save the AI’s summary, then continue past turn 15.
What to Observe
- Did it drift? Does the summary at turn 10 match the direction you wanted at turn 5?
- Was the summary effective? After the progress summary, did the AI’s subsequent responses become more focused?
- When should you stop? By turns 15–20, is the quality of the AI’s responses improving or declining?
If the conversation drifted, don’t force it back — open a new conversation instead. Paste the saved summary and add “Based on the above progress, continue helping me [your original task]” as your opening message, and see whether the AI can pick up accurately.
Why This Matters
Context management is the hardest of Part 3’s three skills to grasp from reading alone — the longer a conversation, the more AI forgets early information, and a single progress summary noticeably improves focus. These insights won’t land without practice.
Today’s Takeaway
Long conversations aren’t scary because they drift — they’re scary because you don’t notice when they’ve drifted. A progress summary is your calibration checkpoint — check it every 10–15 turns to make sure you’re still on course.
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