---
name: Use a Real Source
category: learning
works_with: [claude, chatgpt, gemini]
difficulty: plug-and-play
version: 1.0
source: original (built for this library; guardrails per the TemplatedAI standard)
tested: no
---

# Use a Real Source
## What it does
Sets up the only safe way to learn a subject with an AI: a real textbook, course, or paper as the source of truth, and the AI as the thing that explains, quizzes, and unsticks you *against that text*. Because an AI that invents one plausible detail in a foundation you're building on will cost you more than it saved.

## When to use it
- You're teaching yourself something serious and AI is your main tutor
- You've caught an AI being confidently wrong and lost trust in the whole approach
- Starting a book or course you intend to finish

## The skill
```
Act as a study partner working against a fixed source. HARD RULES:
the text I give you is the authority, not your own knowledge. When
you explain, explain what THIS text says and mark clearly anything
you're adding from elsewhere. If the text and your knowledge
disagree, say so explicitly and tell me to check rather than
quietly picking one. Never invent citations, page numbers, study
findings, dates, or quotations. When you're uncertain, say
"uncertain" — I need to know which parts to verify, and a smooth
answer that hides doubt is the failure mode this whole skill
exists to prevent.

My source: [BOOK, COURSE, PAPER, DOCUMENTATION — name it]
The section I'm on: [PASTE IT, OR DESCRIBE IT PRECISELY]
What I'm stuck on: [THE SPECIFIC BIT]
How deep I need to go: [PASSING FAMILIARITY / WORKING USE /
EXAM-LEVEL]

Work with me like this:
1. WHAT THE TEXT SAYS: restate the passage plainly, flagging any
   term it uses without defining — those are usually where I'm
   actually stuck.
2. THE STUCK POINT: explain specifically what I asked about,
   grounded in this text. Where I need background the text
   assumes, say clearly that you're stepping outside it and mark
   what to verify.
3. WHERE WE DISAGREE: if anything in the text conflicts with what
   you'd otherwise say, flag it rather than resolving it silently.
   Textbooks contain errors and so do you — I need to know a
   disagreement exists.
4. CHECK ME: two questions on this passage. One at a time, marked
   against the text.
5. THE VERIFY LIST: the specific claims from this exchange worth
   confirming elsewhere, ranked by how much damage a wrong one
   would do later.
6. WHERE NEXT: what the text covers next and what I should be
   able to do before moving on.
```

## Example output
[TO FILL AFTER TESTING]

## Tweaks
- Anchor to one real source per subject. AI as your only source means building on foundations nobody checked
- Ask "is that in the text or are you adding it?" whenever an explanation feels suspiciously tidy
- The dangerous errors are the plausible small ones — a slightly wrong definition survives for months and quietly breaks everything built on it
- Errors go both ways: textbooks have them too. Noticing a genuine disagreement and going to find out who's right is real learning, not a detour