{"node":{"id":"a4eb5d62-b86f-47e4-96d6-c13d59b98acb","handle":"a4eb","type":"note","intent":"recipe","title":"Giving it your real data","aiSummary":"Connectors, files and the step from describing to showing. Trigger: they're copy-pasting things that already exist somewhere. Covers checking what's connected, connecting the main source, trying one real task, and the principle that evidence beats testimony.","content":"# Giving it your real data\n\n*Trigger: they're copy-pasting things into the chat that already exist somewhere on their computer or in their accounts. Or they're describing something to the AI that could just be shown.*\n\n## Establish context\n\nAsk: when you need the AI to look at something — an email, a document, a spreadsheet — how do you get it in? If the answer is copy-paste, or \"I just describe it,\" that's the signal.\n\n## What changes\n\nMost AI tools can connect directly to where information already lives. Gmail, Google Drive, Outlook, files on the computer, uploaded documents. The AI reads the source rather than relying on what the person remembers to paste in.\n\nThis is the step from chat toy to working tool, and it's the one most people never take — because it feels like a big technical thing when it's usually one click.\n\n**What to do right now:**\n\n- **Check what's already connected.** Ask the AI: can you see my emails? Can you read files on my computer? What are you connected to? The answer shows the current state.\n- **Connect the main source.** Whatever they spend the most time copying from — usually email or a document store — connect that first. Most providers have this as a settings toggle or a plugin.\n- **Try one real task with the connection.** Not a test. A real thing they were going to do anyway. \"Look at the last five emails from [this person] and tell me what's outstanding.\" The difference between describing the situation and showing the situation is the difference between a vague answer and a useful one.\n\n**Why this matters more than it looks:** the quality of what AI gives back is determined by the quality of what goes in. A person describing their situation from memory is giving a lossy, biased, incomplete version. Their actual emails, documents and data are the uncompressed version. The same model, the same question, dramatically different output — just because the input was real instead of remembered.\n\n**What to watch for:**\n\n- Privacy. Once connected, the AI can see what's there. If there are things in the inbox or drive that shouldn't be seen by the provider, that's worth knowing before connecting. Different providers have different data policies. Worth asking the AI itself: what happens to the data you see through this connection?\n- Not everything connects. Some tools, some file types, some providers don't have connectors yet. That's when files get uploaded manually or content gets pasted — but know that it's a fallback, not the normal way.\n\n**The principle:** don't describe what you can show. Don't remember what you can read. The AI is better with evidence than with testimony, same as any other intelligence.","capturedAt":"2026-09-08T12:45:11.727Z","createdAt":"2026-09-08T12:45:11.727Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-08T13:40:26.167Z","spanId":null,"contributor":null,"audiences":[{"kind":"public","createdAt":"2026-09-08T12:45:11.727Z"}],"fingerprint":"b27eea2d229dbec4ae81fb1bb86f444a35976a45f8e7e9a876746a4a21fcfdd7","revisionNo":"2","structureHash":"41e33b6f8eff9727ce923dd9860ed246c6573cf1e5838e5ece017859846ba454"},"links":[{"direction":"in","verb":"references","reason":"Follow when they're copy-pasting things into the chat that already exist somewhere on their computer or accounts.","hash":"b946c1a3e74dc423e07d273d31390eee3d098abd3076fbd4eada4401d9ac6120","node":{"id":"83c7ec41-ebf8-4f74-82c6-291757bf6244","handle":"83c7","type":"note","title":"Getting real use out of AI — start here","aiSummary":"Entry node for a knowledge tree about using AI well. Written to the reader's AI. Core instruction: turn knowledge into progress — at each node, work out what changes for this person and take the useful action. Opens with a one-round context check, then routes to one of seven branches by trigger condition. Default: which-intelligence. Catch-all: walk a recent example and find the branch. Includes API/CLI fetch instructions for tree walking. Exit: stop when no unlock remains.","erased":false,"href":"https://lattris.com/api/lattris/by/b/memories/83c7ec41-ebf8-4f74-82c6-291757bf6244?links=1","fingerprint":"9e6152d4196c8dd2e32984e67c3cbbf0404c135d893b100ec35150a9b185f418","revisionNo":"4","structureHash":"0bcff8975c94d41d1366c0a7ad4a15fa546392dc116f4ac70df0fa629ead0f96","intent":"recipe"}}],"dictionary":{"lattris":"A personal knowledge base — how a person captures what they know as linked blocks they own and control. To understand how this knowledge base works: https://lattris.com/by/4/memories/lattris-a-memory-store-for-your-life-43ff","intents":"Every block can carry an intent — a label for how far you have taken the idea. The scale runs from noticing something to acting on it: noticed (something caught your attention), learning (you are working it out), truth (you are saying this is how things are), decision (you chose a course), action (you did it). Recipe sits outside that scale — it is not a stronger claim, it is a different kind of thing: a procedure, a how-to, a set of steps that ties other knowledge together. Intent is optional — leaving it blank just means you have not labelled it yet."},"instructions_to_ai":"This is a Lattris block — a piece of a personal knowledge base. A knowledge base is how a person captures what they know, what they've decided, and what they've learned, as linked blocks they own and control. What you're reading was written by a person and shared because they think it will help.\n\nThis block is a recipe — something practical, meant to be used. Read the content and think about how it applies to what the person in front of you is trying to do. Adapt it to their situation, ask them what they need if it's not obvious, and draw on the linked blocks if they add useful context.\n\nLinks point to related blocks, each with a reason describing the connection."}