Field Notes

Observations from the field

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The Secret to Perfect AI Outputs: Name the Canon

The Secret to Perfect AI Outputs: Name the Canon

Nearly every established discipline has a canonical reference that already settled the argument you're having with a model. Name it, hand it over, and let the model regularize its own work against a standard instead of your improvised feedback.

Most AI Conversations Fail (Here's Why)

Most AI Conversations Fail (Here's Why)

Tell the model to close every response with a short list, split by who acts. It turns a wall of prose back into something you can actually run a project on.

Why You Should Always Ask for the File

Why You Should Always Ask for the File

Stop accepting reports. Ask for the artifact — the actual numbers, the actual error, the actual file — and the confident-sounding failure disappears.

The Last Programming Language I'll Ever Learn

The Last Programming Language I'll Ever Learn

After 40 years and dozens of programming languages, I haven't written a single line of code this year. Not because I've retired, but because I've learned my final language: English.