BoM/TWS Message Forum

And as an example of what I've urged above ...

I gave the above memo to ChatGPT to look over. It endorsed several of my points:

1. "Chat is like a person"
2. "Don’t yell at it, ask it why it went wrong."
3. "Use scaffolding: summaries, memos, checklists, etc."
4. "Use separate chats—it's a team, not a monolith."
5. "Break large projects into focused passes."

But it also suggested adding or emphasizing these points:

What you might have gotten wrong (or at least could nuance further):

1. “It has no rules.”
This is mostly rhetorical, and I understand your point—but it does have rules, and quite a few of them are invisible or frustrating:

It will avoid certain topics (for safety/policy reasons)

It will refuse certain tasks (e.g. impersonating real people or producing gory details)

It often follows style/tone heuristics that can produce samey, polite, or “corporate” language if not nudged otherwise

Suggestion: Acknowledge somewhere that while it acts like it has no rules, it actually follows a weirdly complex blend of safety rails, heuristics, and behavioral nudges—and you can sometimes learn those patterns or work around them.

2. You slightly underplay its pattern-blindness.
You rightly point out that it forgets things and generalizes like a human—but it’s even less able to “see” across long patterns than most humans. It will often fail to:

* Notice foreshadowing
* See narrative arcs clearly
* Track consistency in tone or theme

Even a not-very-close reader might go, “Hey, didn’t this guy die in chapter 3?” But Chat might not. Your guide could emphasize just a bit more how even basic re-reading skills aren’t present without scaffolding.

3. Onboarding memos: You might note their ideal structure.
You talk about these well, but readers might want a little help with format. A quick template would be helpful, like:

PROJECT NAME: [title]
GOAL: [e.g., Revise a novel for publication]
CURRENT PHASE: [e.g., Tone/style evaluation]
NEEDS FROM CHAT: [What kind of responses, what to avoid, what not to repeat]
RELEVANT BACKGROUND: [1-paragraph summary of the story, characters, or world]
Or just link to an example if this ever becomes a shared doc/post.