Named systems
Frameworks you can run
SENSE, STACK, CHORUS, RESILIENT, BooksOS, CALIBRATE, GRAIN, ROUTE, TRACE, ROSTER, and DOWNSTREAM: the named operating systems from Systems for the Strategic Self, with definitions, steps, and the book each one lives in.
- Worked through
- 11
- Still in the library
- 5
Worked through
SENSE
AI Agents for Startup Strategy
SENSE is a five-move strategic intelligence layer: Scan, Evaluate, Navigate, Simulate, Execute. It turns agent work from a productivity shortcut into a sourced claim that changes a watchlist, an assumption register, or a Monday decision.
STACK
The Agentic Codebase
STACK is a five-layer architecture for repositories where humans and agents share work: Structure, Toolchain, Agent configuration, Connection, Knowledge and quality. The agent OS is versioned like the app.
CHORUS
The Multi-Agent Organization
CHORUS is a six-skill coordination protocol for teams of 2 to 15 people who share work with specialised AI workers: Charter, Handoff, Orchestrate, Review, Update, Sync. Org charts name reporting lines. CHORUS names coordination lines.
RESILIENT
The Psychology of Founder Resilience
RESILIENT is nine trainable capacities for founder pressure: reappraisal, emotional granularity, somatic regulation, identity flexibility, learning orientation, interpersonal support, executive function, narrative integration, and titrated exposure. Resilience is infrastructure, not a personality trait.
BooksOS
The Agentic Author
BooksOS is a gated production system for serious nonfiction: Brief, Bible, Map, Draft, Edit, Package, Launch. Agents do specialist work inside the gates. Judgment, voice, and accountability stay human.
CALIBRATE
The Calibrated Mind
CALIBRATE is the practice of matching the strength of a judgment to the strength of the evidence, then updating when the facts move. Confidence is a report, not a personality trait. A loud claim with a thin source is a calibration failure, not conviction.
GRAIN
The RAG Engineer
GRAIN is a retrieval loop: Gather, Rank, Assemble, Inspect, Navigate. Gather collects candidate passages. Rank orders them for the question actually asked. Assemble builds the context the model may see. Inspect checks that the cited chunk is the one used. Navigate decides the next lookup or the refusal. If you cannot point at the passage, you do not have retrieval. You have a fluent guess.
ROUTE
The Model Portfolio
ROUTE is a five-skill discipline for governing a mix of language models: Register, Objective typing, Utilize policy, Track, Evolve. Register catalogs every model with mandate, cost class, privacy class, and retirement status. Objective typing names what a task actually requires before a model is chosen. Utilize policy writes the routing rules, cascades, and fallbacks. Track measures cost, latency, and quality per route. Evolve promotes, demotes, and retires on a cadence. A leaderboard pick is a collection. ROUTE is a portfolio.
TRACE
The Verified Research Loop
TRACE is a five-step research loop: Target, Retrieve, Assess, Cross-check, Export. Target locks stakes, scope, and output format before a search runs. Retrieve gathers independent sources instead of one confident pass. Assess tiers each source so weight follows credibility. Cross-check requires a second source before a load-bearing claim can enter the memo. Export is a claim ledger a co-founder can act on without redoing the work. Fluent collection is not research. TRACE is the verification structure.
ROSTER
The Agent Dream Team
ROSTER is a six-skill protocol for a one-person company that runs named specialist agents: Roles, Objectives, Skills and tools, Triggers, Evaluation, Rotation. Roles give each agent a charter. Objectives make the charter measurable. Skills and tools bound what the agent may use. Triggers decide when it runs. Evaluation scores output instead of vibe. Rotation retires the agent that was built for last quarter's work. One chatbot that never hands off is not a team.
DOWNSTREAM
The Downstream Effects
DOWNSTREAM is an operational protocol for consequences that arrive later, on a different surface, with no owner in the room: Detect, Observe, Weigh, Navigate, Stream effects, Trace, Review, Effects on stakeholders, Assess systemic risk, Mitigate. It is an operating heuristic, not a validated risk instrument.
Still in the library
These names do not have a standalone page yet. They belong to titles still in production.
CASCADE The Second-Order Thinker
Personal cognitive companion to DOWNSTREAM: trace the next bend before you commit, in the meeting, in your own head.
COMMAND The Crisis Command
Crisis as a protocol with named triggers and an escalation path, not as a personality that appears under load.
CITATION The Findability Engine
Make a page worth citing: discoverable, attributed, answer-shaped, evidenced, and actually used.
TRUST Marketing Without Manipulation
Sell without dark patterns. The page tells the same story the product will keep.
LEDGER The Cognitive Budget
Treat attention and decision quality as a budget with a closing balance, not a mood.