Four words. Paste any AI response back into the same chat and tell it "cut it in half." The model tightens, hedges fall away, and what's left is closer to the actual point — usually better than the original.

Why it works: AI defaults pad. The first draft is always 30 to 50 percent structural cushion — "great question," "several considerations," "important to note." Halving forces a hierarchy: the model has to decide what's load-bearing and what was filler.

Works the other direction too: paste a paragraph you wrote and ask the AI to halve it. The reverse is just as revealing.

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Three words you paste at the end of any prompt — and the AI pauses before answering. It surfaces what it doesn't know yet: three questions, almost always including one you genuinely hadn't thought about. Answer them, the AI proceeds, and the output lands ten IQ points higher.

Why it works: most prompts under-specify what we mean. "Three questions first" inverts the default — the AI tells you what it needs to do its best work, before doing the work.

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Three words to type after explaining anything you're about to ship — a memo, a launch plan, a hire, a feature, a pitch: "Steel-man my idea."

The AI builds the strongest possible case for your idea, and in doing so reveals the load-bearing assumption you didn't notice you were making.

Then the magic move: ask the same model "now steel-man the opposite." You'll see the version of the argument your skeptics will use against you — written more articulately than any of them will ever bother to.

Why it works: most "feedback" is people imagining what they'd do in your shoes. Steel-manning forces the AI to imagine someone smarter than you arguing both sides. The signal-to-noise jumps.

Try it once on something you're about to ship this week.

One useful AI insight. Every single day. No hype, no doom — just things that actually work.

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