MIND THE GAP
V37 Onward — Working Tracker
Created 26 May 2026 from V36 baseline session
This document holds the decisions and pending items for the V37 manuscript pass. Updated incrementally as work proceeds. Use alongside the AS AT V36 Editorial Breadcrumbs and Planned Changes documents.
Status legend
CONFIRMED — decision locked, ready to execute
PENDING — open question, requires Paul's decision before V37 work proceeds
DONE — completed in V37+
ARCHITECTURE
[CONFIRMED] 15-chapter book. 14 numbered chapters plus an unnumbered Final coda.
[CONFIRMED] Ch 3A liberated. Becomes Ch 4 — The Machine Underneath. Full chapter, not read-or-skip.
[CONFIRMED] Ch 6A liberated. Becomes Ch 8 — Defending the Gap. Full chapter, not read-or-skip.
[CONFIRMED] No chapter numbered 13.
[CONFIRMED] Final coda — unnumbered. The Gap That Makes You Human, substantially as currently drafted. Closes on Mind it.
Renumbering map
Ch 1 → 1 | Ch 2 → 2 | Ch 3 → 3
Ch 3A → 4 (was read-or-skip; now full chapter)
Ch 4 → 5 | Ch 5 → 6 | Ch 6 → 7
Ch 6A → 8 (was read-or-skip; now full chapter)
Ch 7 → 9 | Ch 8 → 10 | Ch 9 → 11
Ch 10 → 12 | Ch 11 → 13 | Ch 12 → 14
Ch 13 → Final (unnumbered)
CH 14 (was Ch 12) — Summary + How to [the project word]
Confirmed cuts and structural decisions
[CONFIRMED] No biography. No more authority work. Reader has both across previous thirteen chapters.
[CONFIRMED] CUT Two Dads section. Held for How to Behave opening (or journal, or essay, or dedication). Sacrosanct material; wrong chapter.
[CONFIRMED] CUT Cancer Closes One Door section. Fully redundant with Ch 12 (was Ch 10) V34 lived account.
[CONFIRMED] KEEP Bowlby Closing verbatim. Moves to Final coda.
[CONFIRMED] New Ch 14 written from scratch. First chapter rebuilt as fresh writing not edited carryover. Summary plus how-to-mind-it. ~1,500–1,800 words.
Decisions pending
[PENDING] Grief and the Ultimate Gap section. CUT entirely, or compress to single-sentence reference to 12-Stage Cycle of Grief?
[PENDING] Additional Intelligence definition section. RELOCATE where? Open of Ch 14, single paragraph inside summary, or cut as redundant with Ch 10 Stage 4 attribution?
[PENDING] NOTE FROM THE ADDITIONAL INTELLIGENCE (~1,100 words of Claude's voice). LIKELY REMOVE — some observations now obsolete (says things were missed that have since been addressed). Claude recommends removal. Paul's call.
CH 4 (was Ch 3A) — The Machine Underneath, sex-and-sizzle rebuild
Confirmed structure
[CONFIRMED] Section 1 — Existing 3A material kept. Statistical at mechanism. Commercial at platform. Fluent at every level the user encounters. Token-bloat analysis, three-axis substrate description.
[CONFIRMED] Section 2 — Self-learning AI trajectory. Static-weights inference to systems updating from own use.
[CONFIRMED] Section 3 — Mythos / Glasswing (April 2026). Anthropic withholding most capable model from public release. 10,000 vulnerabilities found / 97 patched first month. Cite BBC (McMahon & Tidy) and red.anthropic.com. Write April 2026 framing, not by product name, to avoid dating.
[CONFIRMED] Section 4 — Token economy. Usage vs spend interface tell. Uber CTO Naga / The Information / 2026 AI budget burned in 4 months. Microsoft cancelling Claude Code for ~100,000 engineers end June. Anthropic meter-billing change 13 May 2026, live 15 June. Subscription → utility economy. CFO replacing CTO in AI procurement. Resolution horizon: Cerebras + orbital data centres flip the curve. Token economy is a phase, not a destination.
[CONFIRMED] Section 5 — Wearables / Jony Ive / interface leaving the screen / ambient AI.
[CONFIRMED] Estimated scope: ~2,500 words new chapter. Comparable rebuild scale to Ch 8 V31 or Ch 10 V33.
Decision pending
[PENDING] Chapter open: Cavemen seeing fire candidate (Paul's locked phrase for late 2022 as early AI adopter). Decision: chapter open here, or hold for journal / back cover?
CH 11 (was Ch 9) — Olivia collapse + Joker mask
[CONFIRMED] Olivia NOT fully cut. Collapse to one-or-two-sentence insight-level framework illustration. Generic, no named case. Suggested wording: 'Clients in mid-life come to a room and discover that the version of themselves they have been deploying is not the one in the room.'
[CONFIRMED] Chapter proceeds on Paul's own practice. Jean Bond / 5 Nov 2006 / Claude cowork as sub-personalities.
[CONFIRMED] Joker mask single sentence added to the Jean Bond bridge paragraph (V30): 'On Jean’s course I painted a mask. The Joker. One of mine.'
[CONFIRMED] Net word count change: ~150–200 words shorter.
CH 8 (was Ch 6A) — Liberation
[CONFIRMED] Light textual touch-ups only. Remove read-or-skip framing language inside the chapter. Becomes proper numbered chapter. Otherwise unchanged.
CANONICAL LINE ADDITIONS
[CONFIRMED] New canonical line locked: 'The sophistication of its response defies the simplicity of the prompt.' From Paul's May 2024 DALL-E synapse LinkedIn post. Thirteen words. Names the gap without using the word.
[CONFIRMED] Register now stands at 22 locked canonical lines (up from 7 at V17).
Decision pending
[PENDING] Placement of new canonical line. Candidates: Ch 1 open / Ch 6 (was Ch 5, Sizing the Window) / Ch 10 (was Ch 8, Maturity Spectrum) / back cover / Author's Note. Decide before V37 drafting begins.
MAY 2024 LINKEDIN ARTEFACTS — Biographical Evidence
Three posts from Paul's LinkedIn archive, all May 2024, all from the same week-ish window. Visible evidence of attribution discipline practised two years before manuscript existed.
1. GPT-4 attributed thought-leadership post (white-collar AI futures)
[PENDING] Candidate single-paragraph mention in Ch 10 (was Ch 8) Maturity Spectrum or Author's Note. Decide before V37 drafting.
2. Joker mask LinkedIn post (Behind the Mask review)
[CONFIRMED] Locked for Ch 11 Jean Bond bridge. Physical mask exists in Paul's archive.
3. DALL-E synapse post
[CONFIRMED] Canonical line drawn from this post (see above). Post itself does not appear in manuscript; the line does.
TRACKING INFRASTRUCTURE
[CONFIRMED] Chapter renumbering needs propagating through every cross-reference in body text. Mechanical work.
[CONFIRMED] Breadcrumbs and Planned Changes tracking documents need a small reconciliation pass after renumbering. ~1 hour admin tail.
[CONFIRMED] Editorial Handover v5 → v6 still pending (EC-12). Not blocking V37 forward work.
FORWARD ORDER — Recommended Sequence
1. Ch 14 (was Ch 12) architectural restructure — most sensitive, do first while fresh
2. Ch 4 (was Ch 3A) rebuild — the exciting one
3. Ch 8 (was Ch 6A) light liberation pass
4. Ch 11 (was Ch 9) Olivia collapse + Joker mask sentence
5. Canonical line #22 placement decision (Ch 1 vs back cover lead candidates)
6. Renumbering pass + contents page update
7. Tracking documents reconciliation for renumbering
PRE-PUBLICATION BLOCKERS — Separate from V37 Content Work
EC-04 Bowlby permission
EC-07 Privacy review (BLOCKING)
EC-12 Handover v6 update
PUB-01 Nielsen ISBN registration
PUB-03 Copyright page
ACK-01 / ACK-04 / ACAD-03 Naula full name verification
MKT-04 Landing page
MKT-05 Author's Note longer plain-language attribution paragraph
V36 subtitle propagation (track separately)
Cover artwork file
KDP metadata
Nielsen ISBN registration when PUB-01 completed
Author website / paulroebuck.co.uk
Any marketing copy referencing the old subtitle
Back cover (audit for behaviour-vs-intelligence drift required — Paul to send)
SOURCES — Fresh-Claude file paths
Latest manuscript (V36, accepted clean):
/mnt/user-data/outputs/MTG_Manuscript_V36_for_first_review.docx
Editorial Breadcrumbs Log AS AT V36:
/mnt/user-data/outputs/MTG-Final-0-Editorial-Breadcrumbs-Log-AS-AT-V36.docx
Planned Changes v6.11 AS AT V36:
/mnt/user-data/outputs/MTG-Final-0-Planned-Changes-v6_11-AS-AT-V36.docx
This document (V37 Onward Tracker):
/mnt/user-data/outputs/MTG-V37-Onward-ToDo-Tracker.docx
Most recent compacted transcript (covers V28→V36 architectural session):
/mnt/transcripts/2026-05-25-21-30-25-mtg-book-edit-v36-architecture.txt
Transcript journal catalogue (lists all five compacted sessions):
/mnt/transcripts/journal.txt
— end of tracker —
Update incrementally. Move items between [PENDING] and [CONFIRMED]/[DONE] as decisions land.