Prompt Vault · Plan and decide
Imagine how a plan could fail
Look for failure paths while you can still change the plan.
The plan you are considering.
Your next step
Try it for yourself
You’ll need: The plan you are considering.
Paste into an AI conversation after adding your own context.
Here's my plan: [the plan].
It's one year later and this plan failed. Write the story of what went wrong.
What happens nextA hypothetical failure story gives you risks to check, not a prediction.
Full notes & source materialThe complete original text, examples and reference details.
These are the complete original notes. Planned videos and services mentioned here may not be available yet; the actions above reflect what you can use on this site now.
Read the obituary before the funeral — make AI write the story of how your plan failed.
Preserved from the original Prompt Vault. The active series restarted with the Semantic Tree Learning Navigator and the YouTube Action Plan.
The prompt, ready to paste.
Here's my plan: [the plan].
It's one year later and this plan failed. Write the story of what went wrong.
Replace anything in [brackets] with your real thing. The prompt is deliberately short — resist the urge to pad it.
Then the follow-up that makes it land:
Which of those failures is already starting?
When to use it.
Before committing to anything — a plan, a launch, a big purchase.
Why it works
Asking "what could go wrong?" gets you a polite list. Asking for the story of how it already failed gets you the specific, believable chain of events — and the follow-up turns hindsight into something you can act on today.
The method, step by step.
- Hand over the plan
Give the AI the plan exactly as you intend to run it. - Ask for the failure story
Tell it: "It’s one year later and this plan failed. Write the story of what went wrong." - Find what already started
Follow up with "Which of those failures is already starting?" — then fix those first, or stop.
How I actually use it.
I ran it on a system I'd already built. Half the failure story was already true. I shut it down that week. Cheaper to read the obituary before the funeral.
The video for this one drops on @espoai — the page is live so the prompt is yours already.
The same method, pointed at real situations.
For a launch
Here's my plan: I'm launching [the thing] on [rough timeline] to [audience], and success looks like [the goal].
It's one year later and this launch failed. Write the story of what went wrong.
For a big purchase
Here's my plan: I'm about to spend [amount] on [the purchase] because [the reason].
It's one year later and I regret it. Write the story of what went wrong.
For a hire
Here's my plan: I'm hiring [the role] to [what they'll own], paying [comp].
It's one year later and the hire failed. Write the story of what went wrong.
Keep exploring the vault.
- Legacy №001 The Fusion Method: Two AIs argue your decision, round after round, until only the strongest case survives.
- Legacy №008 The Tenth Man: If nine agree, the tenth must argue the other side. Nobody wants that job — AI will take it.
- Legacy №004 The Cold Read: The shortest prompt in the vault. Two words, and they find the thing you can’t see.
New prompts, numbered so you can binge them.
Follow @espoai for videos and browse the methods here. The separate AI newsletter requires email confirmation; edition delivery is paused while it is prepared.
Keep going