The need
My constraint wasn’t a shortage of possibilities. It was choosing among them without quietly committing all my time to things I found interesting.
I wanted a system that would remember to challenge a new idea from several directions: what it would take, what it displaced, and whether it fit the life I wanted to build.
What I made
My personal council uses named perspectives with different jobs in the conversation. A separate pacing council includes an imagined future version of me. I use those roles to examine decisions and narrow priorities.
The version readers can borrow is smaller. One prompt interviews you, proposes four seats based on your answers, and brings the resulting council to a decision immediately. It lives in an ordinary AI conversation; it isn’t a separate app.
The pilot shows a browser-chat approach in DeepSeek alongside my more involved Claude Code setup. You don’t need my personal files to try the starter prompt.
What counts as evidence
In the episode, I explain how the council helped me think about starting the channel. It also challenged me to stop overplanning and record.
That’s a personal example of use, not a measured improvement in decision quality. I haven’t established that simulated advisors produce better decisions than a good checklist or an honest conversation with a friend.
The next useful test is small: bring one decision, name the action it leads to, and revisit what happened a week later.
The pattern worth borrowing
Give each role a question it must ask and a failure it should look for. Put the user’s constraints ahead of the role’s performance. End with an action and a record of what was deferred.
The roles share the same underlying conversation. They can echo one another or miss the same issue. When a decision depends on outside facts, check those facts separately. A unanimous council is still generated advice.
What’s available
Use the four-seat starter prompt here, or see its original YouTube comment. The downloadable website resource includes the prompt and a short review exercise.
The six follow-up prompts come from the pilot’s companion pack. The editable file template is a shortened adaptation of its generic COUNCILS.md, with plain roles and room for your own responsibilities. It doesn’t contain my private configuration.