I see this question a lot, so I wanted to share my take. ICM (the stage-by-stage folder setup, where each stage loads only the context it needs) cuts waste. It doesn't cap usage on its own. If your usage is still high, it's usually one of these: **1. Your context files are too big.** This is a symptom of ai generated slop without proper human auditing, maintain your files! If each stage loads a 5,000-word reference doc "just in case," you've moved the bloat into a folder. Check what each stage actually reads. Keep stage instructions short and push reference material into files that are only loaded when needed. **2. Stages aren't isolated.** ICM only saves tokens if each stage starts clean. If you run everything in one long conversation, the model re-reads the whole history on every turn. Start a fresh session per stage and pass work forward through output files, not chat history. **3. Too much gets loaded at the start.** A bloated root `CLAUDE.md`, or a pile of always-on rules, skills and MCP tools, is paid for on every single message. Trim the always-on layer to the essentials. Manage your hooks and permissions properly! **4. Outputs are being re-read in full.** If stage 3 reads the entire raw output of stages 1 and 2, you're paying for it again. Have each stage write a short summary or handoff file, and have the next stage read that instead. My /handoff skill is one of my favorite and most used. One of the few things that's persisted in all my "restarts". **5. Your model choice is off.** Running the strongest model on every stage burns usage fast. Use a lighter model for mechanical stages (formatting, extraction, file moves) and keep the heavy model for the stages that need judgment. !! I was just burned on this today. I had my fancy new process all shiny and polished. Yesterday I was polishing and left a mark - today, Opus and Fable CRUSHED my account usage before I could notice, and I feel like I'm a careful person. **6. Loops and retries.**

A private conversation today got me thinking, so I'm asking the room. When is writing authentic? When is AI-assisted writing authentic? And who sets the standard? What we learned in school, the latest teaching guidelines, Schulz von Thun, Waldorf? If I write in broken English, is that authentic? If I only talk about myself and never ask questions? Or if I do ask, because I actually want to know what you think? I'm autistic. Communicating with people is hard for me to begin with. I use structure to bring order into my thoughts, and I keep it consistent on purpose. Here's how I actually work. I work on a pig farm. Sometimes I'm delivering piglets with my arm inside a sow while I answer your comments. Sometimes I'm on the tractor for hours with nothing else to do. So I dictate everything by voice. I see who commented what, I answer in German, and my AI assistant, which I built for exactly this, translates and structures it so everyone can follow. For me, 2026 is great, because I finally have the freedom to get thirty, forty years of thoughts out of my head. I built a voice box that talks like KITT, better than the original. I built my own OS, the one my grandpa and I dreamed up when I got my first computer. I'm building my own community as a knowledge archive, and something I call Repothek for this community. All at the same time, because my brain is fast. That's what AI is for, to me: accessibility. Freeing up our thoughts. Should I type every reply by hand instead, one by one, with my arm in a sow? How I talk is what we learn in school here in Germany. You ask, you respond constructively, and you ask another question if you want the conversation to go on. Most people say "good morning, how are you?" and then nothing follows, because they don't care. I do care. I remember what you write, and your answers help me revise stuck ideas from my own bubble. So now I'm told I'm not authentic, and honestly, it confuses me. My take: there is no shared language for authenticity. Everyone decides for themselves how they are. Others can accept it or not, and nobody has to join a conversation with me. I don't tell you your face is ugly and ask for a different photo either.