Lesson 19 of 25

The Elimination of Mental Static (Cleanliness)

A typo in a technical term, a half-named person, a sentence whose grammar hides two requests inside one - each makes the model guess, and a guess is where a wrong answer comes from. Clean the noise out: spell the function name correctly, give the full name, and split a compound request into separate numbered instructions. Note that the fixes in this chapter are all shorter than the problems. Clarity is not the same as length.

Reach for it whenWhen an answer comes back subtly off - the wrong author, a misspelled method, two requests fused into one muddled paragraph - and the cause is a small flaw in what you typed.

Tags remove the structural ambiguity that grammar creates: a fused request like "summarize and tell me its main points and why its important" becomes three tags, and there is no longer a question of whether that is one task or three. Keep the tagged version short - the tags are doing the disambiguating, so the prose inside them does not need to.

Worth knowingClaude tends to ask or flag when something is genuinely ambiguous, which is the behaviour you want - but only if you leave it room. One short line telling it to say so rather than pick a reading is enough, and it costs you a sentence.
  • Tags resolve ambiguity that grammar cannot.
  • One task per tag - never two in one.
  • Add a line: say so rather than assume.
  • Keep the text inside tags short.
  • Pasted material in its own tag, instruction last.
The Corrupted Technical Term

Instead of

Write a simple Javascript function that takes a JSON string and uses JSON.parse to turn it into an object, but make sure to include try...cacth for error handling.

Perplexity version

<task>
A JavaScript function that parses a JSON string with `JSON.parse` inside a `try...catch` block.
</task>

<behaviour>
Return the parsed object on success, `null` on failure, and log the error.
</behaviour>

<if_unclear>
Name anything you had to interpret rather than choosing silently.
</if_unclear>
Open Perplexity 305 characters
The Ambiguous Proper Noun

Instead of

Tell me about the famous author Narayan who wrote about a fictional town in south india.

Perplexity version

<subject>
R. K. Narayan, the Indian novelist.
</subject>

<task>
1. A brief biography.
2. The significance of Malgudi, his fictional South Indian town, in his work.
</task>

<uncertainty>
Mark any date you are unsure of.
</uncertainty>
Open Perplexity 235 characters
The Grammatically Confused Command

Instead of

Summarize the article and tell me its main points and why its important.

Perplexity version

<article>
[Paste the article here]
</article>

<task>
Three separate sections:
<summary>One paragraph.</summary>
<main_points>Three, as a list.</main_points>
<significance>Why it matters, and to whom.</significance>
</task>
Open Perplexity 223 characters