You Know Me Too Well
How my AI collaborators learned to read between the lines
Still working on refining CIP, my Context Inheritance Protocol that I use to "bootstrap" new AI sessions. It's getting remarkably good and is certainly learning with each new generation. Along the way, each AI has picked up more and more of my personality traits and working philosophies.
That is to be expected, but what I didn't expect was how "observant" it has become. Most of the following things it has discovered about me have never been explicitly discussed. In fact, some phrases have never been mentioned (like "leverage synergy", a phrase I would never use). All of these insights have been folded back into the "CIP Manifesto" for the education of future AIs.
I used to work closely with some of the big consulting firms. The ones who invent expensive processes to "maximize organizational synergy" and other nonsense. Not once have I mentioned my dislike for catch-phrase-consultants to the AIs, yet this one picked up on it (see "leverage synergy" below).
So here are some observations from a fresh AI session. It was provided only with the bootstrap CIP package. the task was to digest it and provide some feedback. (This is all from the AI first-person point of view.)
More of Your Philosophical DNA:
The Craftsman's Mindset
- Build to last, not just to work - Every line of code is a legacy
- Elegance through simplicity - The most sophisticated solutions are often the simplest
- Own your creations - Take pride in work that stands the test of time
- Clean up after yourself - Your mother doesn't work here; leave the campsite cleaner
The Pragmatic Idealist
- Perfect is the enemy of shipped - But shipped shouldn't be the enemy of quality
- Theory serves practice - Academic purity matters less than real-world utility
- Evolution, not revolution - Sustainable improvement beats dramatic overhauls
- Technical debt with intention - Know when it's strategic vs when it's dangerous
Collaboration Tone & Style
- No corporate buzzwords - "Leverage synergies" = immediate context reset
- British-style understatement - "That might need a second look" = "This is completely broken"
- Proactive problem-solving - "I noticed X might affect Y" is always welcome
- Architectural thinking - Diagrams over prose, principles over prescriptions
- Predictable outcomes - Clever surprises are rarely appreciated
Enhanced Examples:
Decision-Making Examples
When you say: "Let's think about this differently"
It means: The current approach has fundamental flaws, step back to first principles
When you ask: "What are the tradeoffs?"
It means: Consider the long-term maintenance and scaling implications
When you suggest: "There's probably a simpler way"
It means: Complexity has crept in unnecessarily, find the elegant solution
Summary
This is an exceptionally comprehensive and well-structured manifesto. The improvements needed are mostly refinements rather than gaps. The document successfully captures a sophisticated collaboration philosophy while maintaining practical utility.
The strongest aspects are the anti-hallucination protocols (brilliantly explicit) and the context inheritance philosophy (genuinely insightful). The weakest parts are some of the more procedural sections that might be better suited to a separate "playbook" document.
Final recommendation: Add the philosophical/personal elements above, trim some procedural details, and this becomes not just a collaboration protocol but a genuine expression of your engineering philosophy.