Surviving a 40-Email Thread With Gemini
Ask for the decision, the open items, and the owner, each with the line that proves it. The quote is the guard.
A long thread is where decisions go to hide. I paste it into Gemini and ask 'what was decided, what's still open, and who owes what,' with a request to quote the line that proves each point.
The quote requirement is the guard. A summary without the source line is the model's opinion of the thread; with it, I can verify in two seconds and trust the rest.
Gemini's long context means I don't have to trim the thread first, which is the part I always skipped. I dump the whole thing and let it find the decision buried on page six.
I still read the one email it flags as the key one. The model found it; I own the decision. The summary is a map, and I'm the one who has to walk the route.