Most of your credits are not spent on thinking.
They go on tools you never use, screenshots, and explaining yourself again every morning.
The fix is habits and files, not features. Your assistant reads one tiny file first and writes one tiny file last. Everything else is pruning.
I built this on my own account in one day. The bill dropped. The assistant got better. Then I wrote it down for my class.
Who is teaching
Dan. A long career in fire shows: Cirque du Soleil, and coaching at Franco Dragone in China. Finance, systems, family constellation. Not a programmer. I have used these tools every day since they were any good, and I have paid for every mistake in this guide at least once.
Spark Creative Solutions helps creatives, changemakers and small teams use AI well. Small classes, daily contact, lessons when they are ready.
What you will not find here
Hype. Prompt packs. A new tool every week. An agent that burns credits looking at your screen. Your private life pasted into somebody else's model.
What you will
A setup that costs less every week. Habits that work in any assistant. Safety rules written from real mistakes. Plain language, in five languages.
The path
Recursive self-improvement for your AI assistant: the minimum-credit setup
Six steps, about 40 minutes, nothing to install that costs money. Prune, the home folder and the three files, the Ops Project, the pulse, cheap helpers, scheduled tasks that earn their keep. Windows and Mac, all three assistants.
Module 2
The next step once the setup is running. Posted here first, then to the group.
The full series
Module 1 is the hook and it stays free. The series that follows is the paid part: every module as it lands, updates for as long as the series runs, and the group to ask in. One price, no subscription. The price gets set when module 2 is out.
Want to be told first? Send a one-line email with the word series and your assistant of choice.
The toolkit
Everything module 1 uses, as files. Free. Edit the lists at the top before you install anything.
Free library
The AI Resources guide, Basic Financial Awareness and a few other open documents live on my Linktree. Free to use and share. Module 1 is the newest.
The group
A small class. Daily contact, even if it is one line. Lessons come when they're ready.
Private. Only humans may apply.
Questions
Which assistant do I need?
Any one of Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, on the standard paid tier. Never two at once. The free tiers work for the file habits.
Do I need to code?
No. You make a folder, three text files, and paste one instruction. The pulse script is optional and comes ready to run.
What does it cost?
Module 1 is free. The plan you already pay for. Everything else in the guide is free, and the first step is a spend cap.
Is my data safe?
Safer than before. Keys and passwords stay in files on your own computer. Outside models get pasted text, scrubbed, never uploads. Folders named Private stay private. The rules are in the guide and travel with it.
Which languages?
English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi and Arabic, the five most spoken on Earth. The scripts are the same in every language. There is a sixth one hiding on this page, for readers of a certain series of novels.
Can I share it?
Yes. Free to use and share. Say where it came from.
Teaching is learning too.
Thank you for your time.