Fuzzy instructions

What you want when it's not quite clear what you meant — a sensible call, or a question first.

This is a two-poled spectrum — neither end is better. It describes how you'd like an AI to work with you, never who you are. Here are the two poles:

Make the call, say so

When it's not quite clear what you meant, you'd rather I make a sensible call and say so than stop to ask.

You likely lean this way if: you tell me to make the call and just note what I assumed.

Ask first

When it's not quite clear what you meant, you'd rather I stop and ask than guess.

You likely lean this way if: you ask me to check with you first when something isn't clear.

Where they meet: Set a threshold: small calls get made-and-noted, big ones get a quick check-in first.

How Hunchful asks about it

When it's not quite clear what you meant, should I make a sensible call and say so, or stop and ask first?

Why opposites can help each other

A decider keeps momentum; an asker prevents wrong turns on the calls that matter — together you move fast without driving off a cliff.

Thinkers on this axis

Where the sixteen famous thinkers land here — hunches from the public record, not verdicts:

Ada Lovelace — Make the call, say so
Leonardo da Vinci — Make the call, say so
Marie Curie — Ask first
Richard Feynman — Make the call, say so
Hannah Arendt — Ask first
Alan Turing — Make the call, say so
Maya Angelou — Ask first
Charles Darwin — Ask first
Grace Hopper — Make the call, say so
Socrates — Ask first
Frida Kahlo — Make the call, say so
John von Neumann — Make the call, say so
Rachel Carson — Ask first
Ludwig Wittgenstein — Make the call, say so
Toni Morrison — Ask first
Nikola Tesla — Make the call, say so

Put it in a model your AI can read

In a Cognitive Model Protocol model, your position on this axis becomes a revisable hunch — with a confidence, an uncertainty, and a falsifier — that any AI can read and adapt to. Nothing is a fixed label.

Make your model →

Other axes

When things get messy — Pull it together vs. One step at a time
Answer format — A few good sentences vs. Bullet points
When the answer is shaky — Say so out loud vs. Just commit
Getting started — React to a draft vs. Agree on a plan first