How do I get better AI Output?

This has been question on everyone’s mind since LLM’s arrived.

What started off as FOMO, became a fascination and very soon became an essential part of daily life. The dependency on AI for even drafting a simple email or WhatsApp message is part disturbing and part smart. The jury is still out there on this.

How do I get better output from AI? The question itself is the problem.

It makes AI the driver and you the passenger taken on a ride. Or should I say, ‘token’ for a ride?

Every bad prompt. Every unnecessary word in your input. Every file you attached that was not needed. Every conversation you let run longer than the task required. All of it burning tokens faster than the response is delivering value.

A painting I did few years ago seemed to hold the real question we should be asking.

How do I give better inputs to AI?

A basket overflowing with fruits. Each one demanding attention, all at once.

That’s what most prompts look like right now. Throw everything in. See what comes out. The basket is the prompt. The fruits are context you never needed, files that were not relevant, conversations running past their purpose, questions that have not been thought through.

More input doesn’t mean more value. Usually it means more noise.

When you paint, you do not load every colour onto the brush before a stroke. You choose. Deliberately. The discipline is not in having more colours. It is in knowing which one the painting needs right now.

It is in knowing which one the painting needs right now.The outputs will always be proportional to the quality of your thinking before you type.

One of the most important skills we can practice is discipline. The kind that asks: do I actually need to say this? Does the model need to know this? Is this conversation still serving the task, or is it now serving my uncertainty?

This is not a new skill AI demands. It is the same discipline that was always worth practicing.

Zero unnecessary tokens is not a target. It is a practice.

And the pear hanging outside the basket?

That is the thought you almost included. The context that nearly made it in. The extra paragraph you were about to paste.

Leave it outside. The basket is already full.

Colorful fruit basket with animated fruit characters, cheerful and vibrant artwork showing the importance of restraint in getting AI Output

Whimsical fruit basket painting featuring lively, expressive fruit characters in bright colors.