The Cast-of-Characters File

You ask Cowork to read the project thread and tell you what needs your attention before your next meeting. It comes back with: "There's a message from Sarah pushing on the timeline, though I don't know who Sarah is or how much weight to give her ask."

So you explain. Sarah is your VP. Anything from her is a priority. The person named Raj is a vendor, not a teammate, so his deadlines are soft. You spend a minute laying out the org chart, Cowork adjusts, the summary gets sharper.

The next session, you ask the same kind of question. Cowork asks who Sarah is again.

This isn't forgetfulness you can scold out of it. Cowork starts every session blank, and you never wrote down who these people are. The fix isn't repeating yourself faster. It's a file.

#The cost of re-introducing people

A previous article in this series covered the core move: context lives in files, not in conversations. The bio you wrote tells Cowork who you are. This one tells it who everyone around you is.