First draft, 7 August. Twenty-three questions. We go through them together.
Two different bars, and keeping them apart is the whole thing.
An update is what Skippy says when you ask. It costs you nothing, because you chose the moment. It can be generous.
A call is Skippy deciding to interrupt your day. That has to be rare enough that when the phone rings you already know it matters.
Everything that isn't worth a call still shows up in the update. That's what lets the call bar stay brutally narrow — nothing gets lost, it just waits for you.
You open the screen and ask. What should come back?
1Default scope — what does a plain "give me an update" cover?
Right now it's everything. That may be too much when you just want to know if you're clear.
2How far back is "new"?
Currently a flat 24 hours, which is arbitrary. "Since you last asked" is smarter but means it has to remember.
3What order do the sections come in?
The most consequential question here. Whatever's first is what you actually read; the rest you skim. Today it's: needs you → your tasks → today → body → in flight → what changed → jobs.
4How long?
Tonight's live one ran about a paragraph and a half. Felt roughly right, but that's my taste, not yours.
5Should it end with a question, or just stop?
It currently offers to go deeper. That's either useful or it's the affirmation-model habit wearing a hat.
6Do you want to hear that things are fine, or only what isn't?
"Everything else is healthy" is reassurance — or it's noise. Silence on a section is ambiguous: it could mean fine, or mean nobody looked.
7Your body — always, or only when something moved?
Daily numbers with no change are the fastest way to teach you to stop reading.
8Money — always, or only on movement?
9Family, Chantelle, the kids — in your update at all?
Not a privacy question, a signal-to-noise one. Some of it is genuinely yours to know; some of it is hers.
10Business and the team — same update, or its own?
You run these on separate accounts already. One update or two is a real fork.
11Should things that are being auto-fixed be mentioned at all?
Six automatic jobs are failing tonight and being fixed without you. Listing them is honest but it's also six lines you can't act on.
12Should it remember what it already told you?
Otherwise you hear the same five overdue tasks every single time until you do them — which is nagging, and you'll stop asking.
Skippy rings you. You didn't ask. What justifies that?
13The actual test — which of these earn a ring?
Pick as many as are true. Today the bar is: it's blocked on you, everything else has been tried, and your answer changes something specific.
14Hours — when may he ring at all?
Currently nothing between 10pm and 7am, no exceptions, because I wasn't willing to decide this for you.
15Is there ever an exception to those hours?
A real 3am case exists — money leaving, or something about to be destroyed. Or maybe nothing is ever worth it.
16Ceiling — most calls in a day?
17You don't answer. Then what?
A retry loop is how a good system becomes the thing you mute.
18Two things qualify at once — one call or two?
19Can anyone else cause a call — Chantelle, or the team?
Right now only the system can. If Chantelle needs you, Skippy can't ring you about it.
20Does answering count as approval?
Careful with this one. Money, passwords, deleting things, and messages sent as you are all still meant to be a deliberate yes. "Yeah, deal with it" said half-asleep is not obviously that.
Small, but it's the difference between useful and irritating.
21How does he open?
22Can you talk over him?
Costs a bit more to build. Worth it if you'd otherwise sit through a paragraph you don't need.
23After you decide — does he hang up or keep going?