LESSON 3 OF 6
Make it remember the right things
BY THE END OF THIS LESSON
Decide what belongs in standing context and what does not.
Two kinds of memory, one rule
ChatGPT can carry things between conversations: instructions you set once about how it should respond, and details it retains as you work.
The rule for both is the same. Something belongs there if it is true in every conversation. Anything true only for today belongs in today’s message.
What earns a place
Good standing context is durable and shapes how an answer should be written: what you do, who you serve, your spelling and units, the words you never want to see, how much explanation you need.
Bad standing context is a single project, a deadline, a person’s name you needed once. Those are true for a week and then quietly wrong, and stale context is worse than none because you stop noticing it is there.
Review it, or it rots
- A line you wrote months ago
- Still steering every answer
- Would I write it again today?
Standing context is the one part of your setup that changes your output invisibly. A line you wrote months ago is still steering every answer, and you will not think to question it because you cannot see it.
Read it every few months. The test is simple: is each line still true, and would I write it again today?
WORKED EXAMPLE
TOO SPECIFIC TO LAST
I am working on the Q3 warehouse launch with Sam and the deadline is the 14th. Keep answers short.
DURABLE
I run marketing for a company selling warehouse scheduling software. Buyers are operations managers, not technical. British English. Plain language, short sentences. Never use "leverage", "seamless" or "unlock". Assume I know the basics — skip the explanation and give me the answer.
Everything in the first version stops being true within a month, and none of it will be removed, because nobody reviews a setting that is working. The second describes the person rather than the week.
YOUR TURN
Audit the standing context you already have.
RUN THIS
Here is my current standing context: [paste it] For each line, tell me whether it is durable — true in every conversation — or whether it describes one project, one deadline, or one moment. Then give me the durable version, and list separately anything I should delete.
What a good result looks like
Expect the durable version to be shorter. Anything naming a person, a date or a single project should appear in the delete list.
KNOWLEDGE CHECK
Answer all 2 correctly to complete this lesson.
1. Which of these belongs in standing context?
2. Why is stale standing context worse than none?
REMEMBER THIS
Standing context is for what is true every time — and it needs re-reading, or it rots.