ME:: Tell humans about the problem not the solution first as well of course! ; Sean Goedecke:: Tell agents the why, not just the how
Discovered: Oct 2, 2026 16:06 (UTC) ME:: Tell humans about the problem not the solution first as well of course! ; Sean Goedecke:: Tell agents the why, not just the how
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- Read the whole thing: Sean Goedecke:: Tell agents the why, not just the how
About half of this prompt is sharing broad context, such as the overall project I’m aiming for, the fact that it’s for me personally and not for work, and my priorities (e.g. keeping the laptop cold). If I had written an explicit spec, I would have missed a bunch of improvements: for instance, using native messaging for the local model, or choosing the Gradient model instead of EditLens.
I do the same thing for work, but typically with a stronger emphasis on my technical values. I often write a paragraph spiel explaining the relative priorities of avoiding bugs, observability, fitting elegantly into the current code, performance, and so on. Note that I said “relative” priorities: I don’t simply list all of these things and say they’re important, I explicitly tell the model which of those I care less about and can therefore be traded off to better achieve the others.
Models are now smart enough to have meaningful input on your broader goals. If you’re just prompting them with a concrete technical spec, you are committing the same mistake as in the XY problem: asking expert advice without giving the expert the context it needs.