Every life stage has work to do and a distance that can be calculated.

Options Are Delegable, Bets Are Not

Generate options and evidence with an agent; carry the commitment and the risk yourself.

Distress→Need→Delegation tests→Desire→Gap→Path

1Distress · What Would They Say

I want to try a side business but I can’t tell whether the market exists.

I rewrite my resume for every application at one in the morning.

I read industry news for an hour a day and remember none of it.

Everyone my age looks like they have it figured out.

2Real Need · How to Verify

You are in the trial-and-error phase: the job is to produce options cheaply and gather evidence. An agent is excellent at that. It is worthless at carrying the downside, which is the part that makes the option real.

Verification signals (two or more and the need is real):
　· Competitors and prices in the output can be checked on public sites
　· You could redo the same search in an hour if the agent disappeared
　· The commitment after the output is still yours to sign

3Principle · What Is Actually Happening

Real options + principal–agent cost

An option you can abandon cheaply is worth buying; a commitment you cannot reverse is not. Mapping competitors costs an afternoon and can be thrown away. Signing a lease on a shop cannot.

Principal–agent cost adds the second rule: the agent’s incentive is to finish the task, yours is to be right. So it may prepare a contract comparison, never a commitment.

4Three Tests · Before You Hand Anything Over

Basis taken from the cell framework. All three must pass; a failed test is a stop, not a warning.

Can I hand <collecting and summarizing industry information> to an agent?

Basis: Verification cost economics

The agent's output includes a source link for every claim, and you can spot-check any 3 claims in under 5 minutes.
The task is a summary of existing public pages, not a prediction or recommendation.
You spend less than 30 minutes per week correcting errors in the agent's summaries.

If any fails, do the collection manually for one week and note where time is lost.

Can I hand <drafting and formatting my resume versions> to an agent?

Basis: Task decomposability

You provide the agent with a fixed list of your real experiences and skills; the agent only reformats and rephrases.
Every factual claim (job title, date, metric) in the output can be checked against your source list in under 10 minutes.
You review and approve the final version before sending; the agent never sends it directly.

If any fails, keep a master resume you edit manually and use the agent only for layout suggestions.

Can I hand <evaluating the feasibility of a side business> to an agent?

Basis: Real options / irreversibility

The agent's role is limited to listing pros, cons, and unknowns; it does not produce a go/no-go recommendation.
You can reverse any step the agent takes (e.g., no money spent, no contracts signed) within 24 hours.
You personally interview at least 3 potential customers or experts before any spending decision.

If any fails, treat the agent's output as a starting checklist and do the customer interviews yourself first.

5Desire · What Does It Look Like

Test the idea before spending the savings

A resume that fits the role in twenty minutes

Evidence instead of confidence

6Gap · How to Judge

What to look at

Options generated per week · share with a public source · experiments run before money is committed

How to judge

Did you run one experiment that could have failed before committing money?

Healthy state

≥3 options per decision · every price sourced · money only after one failed-capable test

7Gap · Divided into Three Levels

MildResearch and formatting → automate

ModerateFeasibility tables → automate, interview five customers yourself

SevereMoney committed on a projection → stop, run the cheap test first

8Common Misconceptions · Wrong Paths

Ask an AI whether the business will work —— it cannot run your customer interviews

Invest savings because a model projected a return —— assumptions are invented when they are not sourced

Delegate the contract conversation —— the commitment is yours and so is the liability

Confuse a competitor list with a market —— a list shows who is there, not whether they pay

9The Right Path

Write the cheapest experiment that could prove you wrong

Let the agent compile competitors, prices and public claims with links

Verify five rows yourself, then talk to five real customers

Spend nothing until the experiment fails once or passes once

Sign and commit yourself, with the evidence in front of you

This page does not ask what you earn or what you have saved. It is about the line between research and commitment.

Theoretical basis: Real options / irreversibility · Principal–agent cost · Verification cost economics
Limitations: this is a judgement framework, not financial, medical or legal advice. Where a licensed professional is required, the agent can prepare and cannot decide.

AI Agents line · 25-29 · one of 100 cells