The Friday Afternoon Test

Before you trust an AI tool with real work, give it the Friday afternoon test.

Here's how it works: on a Friday afternoon — when everyone's tired and nobody's at their sharpest — run the tool on a real task and check its output carefully. Not Monday morning when you're fresh and generous. Friday afternoon, when mistakes actually happen.

Why? Because that's when the tool has to earn its keep. AI that only works when you're alert enough to catch its errors isn't saving you anything — it's just moving the work from doing to checking. The Friday afternoon test reveals whether the tool is genuinely reliable or just impressive in demos.

If the output is right on a tired Friday, you can trust it on a normal Tuesday. If it's wrong, you learned something valuable: this tool needs supervision, a narrower job, or more time before it's ready.

Every system I ever built got tested at its weakest point, not its strongest. Test your AI the same way. Friday afternoon doesn't lie.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.