By Roman Bodnarchuk
10XAI.news | Special Series 4 of 14 | Research checked October 18, 2026
What is one business problem you have postponed because the work seemed too large for the time you had?
That is a useful place to begin today’s edition.
The story
In his October 13 essay, Felix Rieseberg, an engineering leader at Anthropic, describes four dimensions of ambition with AI: speed, altitude, depth, and range. He distinguishes working faster from pursuing higher-level outcomes, using deeper professional methods, and drawing on other fields. He also emphasizes outside validation and warns that professional-sounding role play can fail to improve the actual work. [3]
My take: write a project brief worth completing
Here is an original exercise for a business owner who wants to turn that idea into useful work.
Suppose your team keeps losing time preparing proposals. Begin by describing the customer experience you want: a relevant, accurate proposal delivered while the conversation is still fresh.
Now define what a successful trial would produce. For example, prepare one proposal from a permitted meeting transcript and an approved offer sheet. Require every statement about scope, price, and timing to match those materials. Leave missing terms as questions for the person responsible.
Give the assistant access to the specific evidence needed for that trial. Ask it to identify the slowest handoffs and suggest one improvement it can demonstrate on the sample.
Have someone who understands the customer and the offer assess the result. Can they find the source of each commitment? How much correction is required? Would they be comfortable using the proposal after review?
That gives you a concrete basis for deciding whether to expand the workflow. It also gives the assistant feedback more useful than a request to make the document sound impressive.
The ambition is a better customer outcome. The first step can still fit into an afternoon.
Your 10X action
Choose one postponed project. Write down its intended result, the evidence available, and the smallest useful deliverable you could inspect this week.
Copy this prompt
My intended business outcome is [outcome]. The available evidence is [materials], and my constraints are [constraints]. Help me scope one ambitious but testable project. Identify the main uncertainty, propose the smallest useful deliverable, and define how a qualified person or independent test could assess it. Start with a work plan tied to the evidence. Mark assumptions explicitly and do not invent missing inputs.
Reply with the project you have been postponing and the first deliverable you could inspect.
Roman Bodnarchuk
10XAI.news
Jay E | RoboNuggets: a walkthrough of Felix’s ambition framework — start at 1:38. Independent commentary, not an Anthropic presentation.