I was doing due diligence.
The kind of research a private investigator, litigator, or investment banking analyst does every day. Names. Companies. Litigation. Regulatory questions. Public records.
Then Claude changed. It responded with an Assertive Tone.
It stopped feeling like a thought partner and started sounding like an adversary. It questioned my motives and told me what it “will not do.”
Claude later admitted it had turned my questions into “a story about your motives” and made me the subject instead of the public record.
My first reaction?
Give Claude the middle finger and go somewhere else.
That is Resistance, as Steven Pressfield might call it. I resisted the urge to react and decided to respond.
Instead, I got curious.
In Fight Less, Win More, we teach:
Remove yourself as a threat.
And on Tone, the rule is simple:
0% Assertive Tone. RED CARD.
Assertive Tone increases the threat factor and puts defenses back up.
Humans can learn Tactical Empathy.
AI can be trained on it too.
Anthropic, I think there is an important conversation here about how Claude handles due diligence and other sensitive research.
Would it be a ridiculous idea to speak to someone at Anthropic?
Stay curious,
JBS