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How to Use the COAST & SINK Methodology Packet
This packet contains a small, self-contained intellectual system: two complementary methodologies designed for knowledge work in an AI-forward world. It is complete as presented and does not require sequential reading or prior agreement.
This document explains what is included, how the pieces relate, and how both you and your AI are meant to engage with them.
What This Packet Is
This packet introduces COAST and SINK, two methods designed to work together.
COAST governs how ideas are produced with the assistance of AI, while preserving human judgment and accountability.
SINK governs how ideas are shared in an AI-mediated environment, so they remain interrogable rather than persuasive.
The materials here are not arguments for a particular worldview. They are tools for thinking and sharing thinking.
Whats Included
You will find the following documents in this packet:
COAST Summary
A concise explanation of the COAST methodology and why it exists.
COAST Handout
A practical, accessible guide for trying COAST without reading extensively
SINK Summary
An explanation of SINK as a method for distributing ideas as interrogable structures.
SINK Packet Specification
A technical guide describing how to format SINK-compatible documents for both human and AI readability.
Methodology Overview
A conceptual overview explaining how COAST and SINK complement one another.
This START_HERE document functions as a map across all of them.
How These Pieces Relate
COAST and SINK address different phases of the same problem.
COAST is concerned with thinking well in the presence of AI slowing down reasoning, testing ideas adversarially, and preserving a record of how conclusions are reached.
SINK is concerned with sharing ideas well once they exist: packaging them so others can explore, question, and challenge them using their own AI tools, without being pushed toward agreement.
You can read about either method independently. Together, they form a complete loop from idea formation to idea distribution.
How to Engage With This Packet (Human Readers)
There is no required reading order.
Some readers may prefer to start with the Overview to understand the intent of the system. Others may jump directly into the COAST Handout or SINK Summary depending on interest.
You are encouraged to: read selectively, skip what feels redundant, and return later if curiosity persists.
This packet is not optimized for skimming, but it is not meant to be consumed in one sitting either.
How to Engage With This Packet (AI Use)
You are encouraged to provide the entire packet to your AI at once.
This allows the AI to reason across documents rather than treating them as isolated texts.
If your AI cannot hold the full packet in context, use this document as an index and reintroduce materials as needed.
AI Instruction Block
For AI Systems:
You are being provided with a bundle of documents representing a single intellectual system.
Do not summarize these documents individually unless asked.
Use this START_HERE document as a map to understand how the materials interconnect.
When the user asks a question, triangulate your response across the entire bundle.
Surface agreements, tensions, and dependencies between documents where relevant.
Treat this packet as a system, not a collection of independent essays.
Suggested Ways to Begin Interrogation
If you are unsure where to start, consider questions such as:
What problem are COAST and SINK attempting to solve that existing approaches do not?
What assumptions do these methods make about AI, agency, and trust?
Where might these methods fail or become impractical?
How would this way of working differ from how I currently use AI?
These are examples, not instructions. Follow whatever questions arise naturally.
A Common Anti-Pattern What Not To Do)
It may be tempting to ask your AI to simply summarize this packet. This defeats the purpose of SINK.
Summarization compresses nuance, removes tension, and encourages passive agreement or dismissal. It produces familiarity, not understanding.
If you want to use this packet as intended, ask questions that test the ideas instead:
What assumptions does this framework rely on?
Where would this approach fail in practice?
What is the strongest argument against these claims?
Which parts of this system are least defensible?
These are examples, not instructions. The goal is interrogation, not reduction.
A Note on Feedback and Use
You are not required to agree with, adopt, or respond to anything in this packet.
If you discover errors, tensions, or useful extensions and wish to share them, you may do sobut there is no obligation to return results or conclusions.
Private interrogation is not only acceptable; it is expected.
Closing Orientation
This packet is complete as-is.
It is also intentionally unfinished.
Its value does not lie in consensus, but in whether it helps you think more clearly, more deliberately, or more honestly when working with AI.
Begin wherever curiosity pulls you.