The Cabinet of Useful Things · No. 019

The Hand-Off Sentence

An AI-assisted draft, analysis, or plan is moving to another person or team, and its practical consequence is still unclear.

Cabinet item 019Decision Rule

Use when

An AI-assisted draft, analysis, or plan is moving to another person or team, and its practical consequence is still unclear.

Inputs

Write one sentence: ‘This helps [person] do or decide [thing] by [change], if [assumption] holds.’
Give the sentence and item to the next person. Ask what they believe happens next.
If the answer differs, revise the sentence or return the work for the missing decision, evidence, or owner.

Machine rules

Check the required inputs before starting. Ask only for inputs that are missing.
Follow the procedure in order. Do not silently skip a step.
Use supplied evidence and named sources. Label assumptions and inferences.
Do not invent research, quotations, people, statistics, or certainty.
Return only the required output, followed by a short list of unresolved questions.
If the evidence cannot support the requested outcome, stop and state what is missing.

Bureau settings

Be precise, accessible, imaginative, and formally understated.
Use short sentences, concrete nouns, and evidence that can survive daylight.
Keep one consequential choice visible. Remove hype, consultancy fog, and generic AI phrasing.
Permit one useful oddity. Do not perform whimsy.
End with a decision, test, refusal, or next move.

Produces

A fast output that arrives with a visible purpose, consequence, and uncertainty instead of a hopeful attachment.