knowledge-skills

Activate when: someone is making a decision under emotional pressure and worries they'll regret it later; someone says "I know I should do X but it feels too scary right now"; someone is about to quit, accept an offer, end a relationship, or have a hard conversation and is stuck; someone mentions "regret minimization," "what would future me say," or "Suzy Welch." Do NOT activate when: the decision has no medium- or long-term consequences (e.g., which lunch to order); the decision belongs to someone else and the user is being asked to ratify it. More: deciqai.com/s/10-10-10

Activate when: user says 'our growth is stalling and we don't know why,' 'product and marketing are arguing about whose fault it is,' 'where is our funnel breaking,' 'pirate metrics,' or 'acquisition vs activation vs retention.' Also activate for: designing end-to-end metrics for a new product, building a shared instrumentation framework across teams. Do NOT activate when: the product has no users yet (use lean-startup instead), or the bottleneck is already obvious and obvious to fix. More: deciqai.com/s/aarrr-pirate-metrics

Activate when: user says 'what's the most likely explanation,' 'why did this happen,' 'we think it's X but not sure,' 'we only have one theory,' 'the team has converged on an answer without checking alternatives,' or when diagnosing a bug/outage/symptom/anomaly under uncertainty. Do NOT activate when: the problem is purely deductive or mathematical (direct proof, not hypothesis); the situation allows direct observation or measurement that bypasses inference. More: deciqai.com/s/abductive-reasoning

Activate when: signups don't turn into active/paying users; 'people sign up but don't stick', designing onboarding, improving activation; aha moment, time-to-value. Do NOT activate when: the problem is acquisition (no signups) or long-term retention of already-activated users (different lever). More: deciqai.com/s/activation-onboarding-playbook

Activate when: user says 'what's a fair price / starting number / ballpark'; counterparty just opened with a number; user is about to negotiate salary, valuation, or deal terms; user is making a forecast and a number has already been floated; user asks about 'first offer', 'framing effect', or 'being anchored'. Do NOT activate when: the number in question is a verifiable data point (audited financials, confirmed comparable) and is genuinely informative; or the decision is so trivial that the economic impact of anchoring is negligible. More: deciqai.com/s/anchoring

Activate when: user says 'where should we grow next', 'should we enter a new market', 'thinking about diversifying', 'new product vs new market', 'growth strategy', 'adjacent expansion', 'Ansoff', or is spreading resources across too many directions at once. Do NOT activate when: the firm has one clear unsaturated market (answer is always penetration — no matrix needed); or the question is about portfolio allocation across existing BUs (use BCG Matrix instead). More: deciqai.com/s/ansoff-matrix

Activate when: user asks whether their system/business/portfolio would survive a crisis; user says 'this has been fine for years but I'm nervous'; user wants to stress-test a plan against worst-case scenarios; user mentions Taleb, barbell strategy, via negativa, or skin in the game; user is deciding how to allocate across risky vs. safe options under high uncertainty. Do NOT activate when: the decision is small and fully reversible with no meaningful downside; the system is simple, well-understood, and low-stakes. More: deciqai.com/s/antifragile

Activate when: customers pay late and cash is tight; 'clients don't pay on time', collections, invoicing terms, reducing days-sales-outstanding; overdue receivables. Do NOT activate when: paid instantly at point of sale (no receivables). More: deciqai.com/s/ar-dso-discipline

Diagnoses the buyer/seller deadlock in any trade of information — the buyer cannot value what they cannot see, but once they see it they have it for free — and selects the disclosure mechanism (patent, NDA, staged disclosure, trusted intermediary + escrow, reputation, or proxy demonstration) that lets the buyer estimate value WITHOUT the seller losing appropriability. Activate when: user must sell, license, or pitch information/technology/know-how and asks 'how much do we reveal before they'll pay', 'how do we prove it works without giving it away', 'should we patent this or keep it secret', 'they want to see the code/formula/method before signing', 'how do we let a buyer value our tech in due diligence without leaking it', or describes an M&A/VC/licensing/consulting deal where the thing being sold IS the information. Do NOT activate when: the good has no information-appropriability problem (a commodity, a physical product that can be inspected without transferring the design); the information is already publ

Activate when: someone says 'should we trust the expert on this?', 'they're a professor/CEO/MD so they must be right', 'I don't want to push back on them', 'we deferred to the board and it blew up', or is evaluating a charismatic founder, assessing due diligence on a high-credential deal, or building a team where senior voices dominate. Do NOT activate when: the authority is a verified domain expert on the exact question at hand and the decision is time-critical; or when the user is asking a general persuasion question with no authority dynamic involved. More: deciqai.com/s/authority-bias

Activate when: user says 'we keep hearing about X so it must be common', 'that just happened so it's risky', 'the news is full of stories about this', 'I've seen this a lot lately so it's probable', or is making a risk/frequency estimate driven by memorable examples rather than data. Do NOT activate when: the available evidence is genuinely representative of the reference class; the decision warrants heavy precautionary weight on rare but catastrophic/irreversible risks. More: deciqai.com/s/availability-heuristic

Activate when: user says 'walk-away point', 'reservation price', 'should I take this deal', 'what's my leverage', 'they won't budge', or any salary/term-sheet/vendor/M&A negotiation where stakes are non-trivial. Do NOT activate when: the situation is a purely emotional relationship dispute with no transactional dimension; cultural context makes explicit BATNA discussion taboo. More: deciqai.com/s/batna-zopa

Activate when: user says 'Bayesian', 'prior', 'posterior', 'base rate', 'likelihood ratio', or 'update my belief'; someone treats 'the evidence is consistent with X' as proof of X; a high-stakes decision rests on interpreting a test result, security alert, fraud flag, A/B result, or hiring signal; base rates are being ignored in favor of a vivid story. Do NOT activate when: the decision is genuinely deterministic and probabilities do not apply; there is no data or domain knowledge to anchor a prior (Bayes amplifies information, it does not create it from nothing). More: deciqai.com/s/bayesian-reasoning

Activate when: user says "portfolio review," "cash cow," "Stars and Dogs," "growth-share matrix," "which business should we fund," or "resource allocation across units"; firm has multiple business units competing for shared capital; investor or board discussion needs a visual portfolio health read. Do NOT activate when: firm is a single-product startup with no portfolio to balance; user needs competitive analysis within one market (use Porter's Five Forces or VRIO instead). More: deciqai.com/s/bcg-matrix

Activate when: user says 'this can't happen,' 'never happened in N years,' 'our models say it's near-zero'; user is stress-testing a strategy or portfolio against extreme scenarios; someone mentions fat tails, Taleb, narrative fallacy, or turkey problem; a past catastrophic event is being analyzed and it 'seemed obvious in hindsight.' Do NOT activate when: the domain is genuinely thin-tailed (human heights, daily caloric intake); user is invoking 'black swan' as an excuse for a planning failure they could have avoided. More: deciqai.com/s/black-swan

Activate when: user asks 'how do we stop competing on price?', 'what new market can we create?', 'is there a way to differentiate and cut costs at the same time?', describes an industry where all competitors look identical and margins are eroding, or a team is choosing a market entry angle to avoid head-to-head competition. Do NOT activate when: competitive dimensions are fixed by regulation (utilities, certain financial products); or a network-effects incumbent already dominates the space — use disruptive-innovation instead. More: deciqai.com/s/blue-ocean-strategy

Activate when: a founder is deciding whether to raise venture money or self-fund; 'should we raise?', weighing dilution vs speed, choosing a funding path; VC fit vs bootstrap/SMB. Do NOT activate when: the decision is already made and the task is executing a specific raise (use fundraising materials instead). More: deciqai.com/s/bootstrapping-vs-raising

Activate when: a founder is guessing at marketing channels or pouring effort into one that isn't working; 'how do we get customers', 'which channel should we use', growth is stalled on distribution. Do NOT activate when: a channel is already proven and the task is to optimize/scale it, not to find one. More: deciqai.com/s/bullseye-traction-channels

Activate when: user says "business model canvas," "BMC," "Osterwalder canvas," "what's our business model," "map this business," or asks to evaluate/design/pivot/compare a business model before raising capital. Do NOT activate when: no customer segment exists yet (redirect to first-principles first); or the question is purely operational (which CRM, which feature to ship). More: deciqai.com/s/business-model-canvas

Activate when: a profitable-on-paper business is short on cash; 'we're profitable but always broke', managing working capital, inventory or receivables tying up cash; DSO/DIO/DPO. Do NOT activate when: a pure digital business with instant payment and no inventory/receivables (cycle ~0). More: deciqai.com/s/cash-conversion-cycle

Activate when: 'we keep debating whether to pivot or stay the course', 'I don't know what we should never change', 'is this signal or noise?', 'the market shifted — what do we hold onto?', 'we're paralyzed between adapting and staying true to who we are'. Do NOT activate when: the decision is purely operational (which vendor, which tool) with no strategic identity implications; all elements clearly fall into one category and the team already has consensus. More: deciqai.com/s/change-and-constants

Activate when: user says 'let's make sure we don't skip anything', 'we need a pre-flight', 'build me a checklist for X', 'we keep missing steps in our deployment / close / launch', 'Gawande / Pronovost / checklist manifesto'. Do NOT activate when: the task is simple and one-off with no recurrence; the user is asking for a to-do list or project plan (not a must-not-skip operational gate). More: deciqai.com/s/checklist

Activate when: someone says 'let's just remove this', 'why do we still have this rule?', 'this seems useless/outdated', 'nobody knows why this is here', new leadership restructuring without knowing the history, a developer deleting code whose purpose isn't documented, a regulator repealing a law without tracing its origin. Do NOT activate when: the fence's history is fully documented and the documented purpose is confirmed obsolete (investigation already done); the reformer is the original builder and the rationale is fully understood. More: deciqai.com/s/chestertons-fence

Activate when: user says 'should I enter this market / make this hire / invest in this domain,' 'am I qualified to evaluate this,' 'stay in your lane,' 'stick to what you know,' or is about to make a consequential decision in an unfamiliar domain. Do NOT activate when: the decision is small and explicitly framed as a learning bet; the domain is genuinely frontier for everyone and no one has competence yet. More: deciqai.com/s/circle-of-competence

Activate when: user says 'I understand it but can't apply it,' 'how do I stop just copying other people's work,' 'I can adapt frameworks but can't create new ones,' 'why does my innovation always look like a remix,' or when someone's output is sophisticated adaptation that cannot generate genuinely novel solutions. Do NOT activate when: the person needs Stage 1 content knowledge first and lacks basic domain familiarity; or when the block is motivational rather than developmental. More: deciqai.com/s/cognitive-evolution-stages

Activate when: someone says 'this is too much to take in at once', 'learners aren't getting it despite good material', 'our onboarding is overwhelming new hires', 'why does this tutorial confuse people', 'how do I design training that actually works', 'this documentation is hard to follow', 'cognitive load', 'working memory'. Do NOT activate when: the audience is already expert (expertise-reversal applies — novice techniques frustrate experts); the bottleneck is motivational rather than cognitive. More: deciqai.com/s/cognitive-load-theory

Activate when: user says 'I want to improve my thinking,' 'why does my decision-making keep failing,' 'how do I optimize my cognitive performance,' 'what's the full picture of how the mind works,' or is about to apply a single cognitive intervention without understanding which domain is the bottleneck. Do NOT activate when: the specific cognitive domain is already clearly identified and scoped (use domain-specific tools instead); the problem is not cognitively rooted (resource constraints, politics, or external environment are the driver). More: deciqai.com/s/cognitive-science-landscape

Activate when: user says "foot in the door," "I already committed so I have to follow through," "how do I design onboarding / a sales sequence / a commitment ladder," "Cialdini," "would I do this fresh," or is evaluating whether past small steps are pulling them into a bigger decision. Do NOT activate when: the situation is genuinely single-shot with no prior commitment history; commitment framing would be used to pressure someone who already has limited choice. More: deciqai.com/s/commitment-consistency

Activate when: user says 'should I do this myself or delegate,' 'I'm the best at X so I should do it,' 'should we outsource or build in-house,' 'how should we divide work on the team,' 'is it worth hiring someone for this.' Do NOT activate when: the situation is genuinely single-task with no trade-off; the user is asking about competitive strategy between companies (use Porter's Five Forces instead). More: deciqai.com/s/comparative-advantage

Activate when: user asks about starting early vs. later for savings/investing, wonders if small consistent gains add up, wants to know how long to double money, is evaluating long-term wealth or skill-building decisions, mentions 'Rule of 72' or 'exponential growth.' Do NOT activate when: the time horizon is short (under 3 years) and compounding is negligible; the underlying process is genuinely linear with no reinvestment or accumulation. More: deciqai.com/s/compound-interest

Activate when: user says 'we keep finding evidence that supports our view,' 'the team is all aligned on this,' 'I've done the research and it checks out,' or a decision moves forward with only supporting evidence cited. Do NOT activate when: context is explicit advocacy (legal brief, pitch deck) where one-sided argument is the design; or stakes are too low to justify structured disconfirmation. More: deciqai.com/s/confirmation-bias

Activate when: a founder/SMB wants durable organic acquisition; 'how do we do SEO/content', 'we blog but get no traffic', building a content engine; topic clusters, search intent. Do NOT activate when: the need is immediate paid response this week (use paid channels) or the audience doesn't search for the problem. More: deciqai.com/s/content-led-growth

Activate when: a team ships features on opinion instead of evidence; 'we need a discovery habit', 'how often should we talk to users', building a product roadmap; connecting weekly customer contact to decisions. Do NOT activate when: pre-first-customer (use the-mom-test first) or the org has no product to iterate. More: deciqai.com/s/continuous-discovery

Activate when: user says 'contrarian question,' 'the Thiel question,' 'what important truth do very few people agree with you on,' 'is this actually contrarian,' or 'what valuable company is nobody building'; user is drafting or stress-testing a startup thesis, pitch 'secret,' or investment view that claims to be non-consensus; user is preparing for an interview or pitch where they must defend an unpopular claim; user suspects their bold-sounding claim is really consensus in edgy clothing. Do NOT activate when: the user needs the broader portfolio-level discipline of hunting for edges across many bets (use non-consensus-thinking instead); the claim is a matter of taste or values with no evidence path to being right or wrong; the user wants validation or applause for a provocative take rather than a gate that might fail it. More: deciqai.com/s/contrarian-question

Activate when: user says 'challenge my thinking', 'play devil's advocate', 'what's the strongest counter-argument', 'ACH', 'analysis of competing hypotheses'; user needs to evaluate a high-stakes claim or decision with multiple possible interpretations; user suspects motivated reasoning or a team is converging too fast on one answer. Do NOT activate when: the claim is trivial or already well-validated; the decision is about values rather than facts (use regret-minimization or first-principles instead). More: deciqai.com/s/critical-thinking

Activate when: 'we need a breakthrough idea', 'everything in our industry looks the same', 'we've exhausted all options in our field', 'how do we innovate in a way no competitor has tried', 'need to think completely outside the box'. Do NOT activate when: home domain has a known solution needing better execution; user wants to brainstorm more options within their existing field. More: deciqai.com/s/cross-disciplinary-creativity

Activate when: user says 'I used to love this but don't anymore', 'I feel like I've stopped learning', 'I go through the motions but nothing excites me', 'how do I stay curious as I get older', or a domain expert's knowledge has visibly stagnated despite continued effort. Do NOT activate when: the problem is burnout rather than curiosity deficit (burnout requires recovery first); the issue is capability or skill gap rather than curiosity; structural causes (bad environment, financial stress) are driving the motivation problem. More: deciqai.com/s/curiosity-learning-curve

Activate when: a key account renewal is at risk and the team can't explain why the customer values them; someone asks 'how do we become a strategic partner?'; a CSM needs to know where a relationship actually stands; the team claims to be strategic but has no proactive insight delivery this quarter; a deal was lost on relationship despite having the best product. Do NOT activate when: the customer base is transactional high-volume with ACV under $500 (Rung 3–5 is structurally impossible); the customer explicitly prefers arms-length vendor relationships. More: deciqai.com/s/customer-relationship-ladder

Activate when: goods may fall under an antidumping/countervailing duty order or Section 301; sourcing changes; 'are we exposed to AD/CVD or 301?'; scope ambiguity. Do NOT activate when: product clearly outside any order and no special tariff applies. More: deciqai.com/s/customs-adcvd-tariff-exposure

Activate when: an importer has recurring, material duty spend; evaluating FTZ, duty drawback, first-sale valuation, bonded warehouse, or FTA use; 'are we leaving duty savings on the table?'. Do NOT activate when: de minimis / trivial duty where program cost exceeds benefit. More: deciqai.com/s/customs-duty-optimization-opportunity-cost