Hard to Fire
Hard to Fire · Chapter 7 · Reference tool

Five Starter Tasks to Hand AI

Pick one low-risk chore, use the approved tool, and leave with something useful you actually checked.

Start with one chore, not a course. Use the tool you are allowed to use, keep restricted information out, and make a bad output cost five minutes—not trust or data.

The boring rules that keep this useful

  • Use the work-approved tool, and only for an approved use.
  • If the tool and exact use aren't cleared for restricted information, keep that information out.
  • Every output is a first draft, even when the formatting looks finished.
  • Check the numbers, citations, assumptions, and anything leaving your inbox.
  • Own the finished result. AI doesn't get called into the meeting when it's wrong.

A polished result does not make an unauthorized process less unauthorized. If policy is fuzzy, stop and ask Security, Legal, Privacy, or Compliance. Guessing is not a governance strategy.

Assistant

Decode a vague executive request

Give AIUse only content you're allowed to use. Ask the approved tool to pull out four things: the request, deadline, constraints, and unresolved questions. Then compare its list with the original.
You still ownIf it invented certainty, fix it. You're looking for a clarifying question, not a confident guess.
Leave withOne clarifying question that comes from the source, not a confident guess.
Analyst

Inspect a variance

Give AIGive the approved tool only figures and context cleared for that use. Ask for three possible drivers and a check plan for each. Make it separate facts from hypotheses.
You still ownAI gets to suggest. You still have to validate.
Leave withThree possible drivers, a check plan for each, and a clean split between facts and guesses.
Editor

Rewrite a difficult email without erasing the boundary

Give AIWrite the blunt version first. Then ask the approved tool to soften the tone without turning your no into a maybe.
You still ownRead both. If the boundary disappeared, the rewrite failed.
Leave withA calmer draft that still means no.
Tutor

Learn and self-test an unfamiliar concept

Give AIAsk for the version you'd give an executive, the detail a practitioner needs, and the common ways people get it wrong. Then take a five-question self-test.
You still ownCompare your answers with the reference explanation, then verify it against an authoritative source. Headings do not make it true.
Leave withA useful explanation, a five-question self-test, and a real source check.
Sounding Board

Rehearse an ambiguous political situation

Give AIAsk for three interpretations that might fit, what each one would mean, and what you need to know before you move.
You still ownDon't ask the machine to read a room it wasn't in. Use it to widen the angle, then apply your own judgment.
Leave withThree plausible reads, what each would mean, and the questions to settle before you act.
One useful thing you actually checked

Run one. Check it. Write down what happened.

You picked: Choose one starter above

You should leave with: Pick one starter above and its finish line will show up here.

0/4 checks marked

Don't be weird about it

Don't announce that you've “integrated AI into your workflow” as though you discovered electricity. Use it responsibly. Produce better work. If someone asks how you did it, answer like a normal person.

Track the minutes saved and the cleanup it needed. If the tool saved twenty minutes and required eighteen minutes of babysitting, that is still useful information. You do not need another score.