The Operator Deck · 24 cards
Each card is an operator: a move you can apply to any situation, for the rest of your life. A fact helps you once. An operator keeps handing you new moves. Name the problem in front of you, draw a card, and ask its question.
Shuffled. Your card lands here.
Now ask
US Letter or A4, 100% scale, margins none. 3 sheets, nine cards each, with cut marks. The last sheet adds a how-to card and 2 blanks for operators of your own.
Form a usable model of "where am I, and what's happening?"
Where am I, and what is actually happening here?
Distinguish what I care about and what I'd prefer.
What do I actually care about here, and what would I prefer?
Represent states that don't exist yet.
What better states could exist that don't exist yet?
Ask what would have to become true for that.
What would have to become true for that?
Turn one part of the causal frontier into an actual attempt.
Which one piece of this can I turn into a real attempt today?
Distinguish what happened from what I hoped would happen.
What happened, as opposed to what I hoped would happen?
Change the model or the intervention rather than defend the story.
What does this change: the map, the move, or nothing?
When blocked by ignorance: learn, ask, research, recruit, tool up.
Which decoder am I missing?
Keep enough state that an interruption doesn't reset the whole process.
If I stopped right now, what would I need written down to pick this back up?
Apply the same process to the limitations of the process itself.
What's blocking the process itself, and can I solve that the same way?
Expect a few inputs to produce most of the output; find them and feed them.
Which few inputs are producing most of the result?
Find the one link governing throughput; effort anywhere else is waste.
What's the one thing limiting everything else right now?
When two needs seem to conflict, find the assumption that makes them conflict, and test it.
This requires that only if what is true?
Weigh outcomes by probability, not by vividness.
How likely is each outcome, and what is each one worth?
Look for what reinforces itself and what corrects itself.
What here feeds itself, and what pushes back?
Conditional intent never authorizes an external action; approval covers exact text, recipient, channel, sender.
Did I approve this exact text, recipient, channel and sender?
A source saying X, someone believing X, a plan assuming X and X being true are four different things. Keep the label on.
Is this true, or did someone say, believe, assume or predict it?
Before you chase "more", name which kind you need: a route, a capability, a permission, resources or coordination.
Do I need a route, a skill, a yes, resources, or better coordination?
Never conclude "impossible". Conclude "no known path under my current map", then search, ask, learn or test.
Is this impossible, or just no path I know yet?
Price every choice by the best thing it displaces.
What's the best thing this choice pushes out?
Move fast on two-way doors, slow on one-way doors.
If this turns out wrong, can I undo it?
When nothing moved for two weeks, change a daily lever; don't change the goal, and don't change the system.
Which one daily lever do I change, keeping the goal and the system?
Turn a recurring task into a standard and a check; act only when the check fails.
What standard is this chore protecting, and how would I know it broke?
Your ceiling is the weakest link in intent → … → learning, not your strongest capability.
Where does my loop leak: wanting, seeing, planning, acting, checking or learning?
● Kernel the ten-move loop, in order. ◆ Operator a lens for any situation.
When a move works for you twice, it's an operator. Write it down.
Name
The move
Ask
When
When a move works for you twice, it's an operator. Write it down.
Name
The move
Ask
When