Recipe cards: teach it once, run it forever

Your grandmother had a recipe box. Same cake, perfect, every time. Your AI needs one too.

Remember Grandma's recipe box? Little cards. Each card was one dish. Anyone who followed the card got the same cake she made. She wrote it once. It worked forever.

You can give your AI recipe cards. Each card is one job you do over and over. Here's what goes on a card:

• The name. "Write my weekly email."
• The steps. Where the ideas come from. How long it should be. Where to put it when done.
• Your rules. Words you never use. How you sign off.
• The check. What to look over before calling it done.

Meet Bob

Bob is a realtor. Every new listing, he needs the same five things: a house write-up, a Facebook post, an email to his list, a flyer, and a thank-you note to the seller. He used to spend a whole evening on it.

Bob wrote one recipe card called "New Listing." It lists all five things, with his rules for each. Now he types the address and the details, says "run my New Listing card," and reads over the five drafts with his morning coffee. The evening job became a coffee job.

The secret second card

Here's the pro move. Behind each recipe card, keep a second card: the lessons card.

Every time you fix something — "too pushy," "never say 'dream home'" — the AI writes the fix on the lessons card, with the date. And the rule is: read the lessons card before every run.

Watch what happens. First run: five fixes. Fourth run: two fixes. Tenth run: you change nothing. The card learned your taste. It's like training a helper who never forgets and never quits.