3 ms·

I noticed a while back that the internet has made me terribly prone to skimming. It got to a point where I could hardly stand to read anything longer than a sho

I noticed a while back that the internet has made me terribly prone to skimming. It got to a point where I could hardly stand to read anything longer than a short news article. To learn anything useful on the internet, you pretty much have to skim. So much of the internet is so loaded with filler and BS that it is hardly worth reading at all. With ChatGPT, it’s incredibly refreshing to be able to ask a question and get nothing other than a concise answer. No skimming required. I feel so much more focused and better able to learn this way.

the_duke 3y ago
I have a standard copy n paste prompt that instructs it to keep answers concise and free of boilerplate. Otherwise ChatGPT is prone to injecting lots of filler text as well.
- piaste 3y ago
  Care to share that prompt? I find the fillers and disclaimers very grating too.
  - the_duke 3y ago
    > You are an experienced expert in XXX. You always answer questions to the best of your knowledge, but you NEVER provide answers that you are not sure about, or that are not backed up by high-quality sources; instead you say that you can't provide a good answer. Giving trustworthy and correct answers is much more important to you than always having something to say. You keep your answers concise, on-topic, free of boilerplate, and exclude basic instructions that most developers will be familiar with anyway, unless the user asks for more details.
bob_boblaw 3y ago
hmm that makes sense. I too have skimmed way too much because of the BS. and ya it is refreshing now that I think about it
phh 3y ago
It's interesting because that's my biggest gripe against ChatGPT, it's too verbose and very hard to skim through. Compared to stack overflow answers it'll be easily four times longer. Sure compared to for instance news website, it is less verbose, but those are easy to skim. I'm still able to read through well written text without skimming, though yes most of the texts I'll read I'll skim through, then go back and then to improve my global understanding, which I think is beneficial
- brokencode 3y ago
  I think it depends on the subject, as this isn’t something I’ve had issues with personally. I’d suggest asking ChatGPT to respond with concise answers. Or perhaps tell it that you are familiar with the subject and don’t need the basic details explained.
- savanaly 3y ago
  Prepare a statement to copy paste at the start of every session asking it to respond in a concise way. And maybe include an example of how you want its response to look. I guarantee good results. Assuming we’re speaking of 4.

the_duke 3y ago

I have a standard copy n paste prompt that instructs it to keep answers concise and free of boilerplate. Otherwise ChatGPT is prone to injecting lots of filler text as well.

piaste 3y ago
Care to share that prompt? I find the fillers and disclaimers very grating too.
- the_duke 3y ago
  > You are an experienced expert in XXX. You always answer questions to the best of your knowledge, but you NEVER provide answers that you are not sure about, or that are not backed up by high-quality sources; instead you say that you can't provide a good answer. Giving trustworthy and correct answers is much more important to you than always having something to say. You keep your answers concise, on-topic, free of boilerplate, and exclude basic instructions that most developers will be familiar with anyway, unless the user asks for more details.

bob_boblaw 3y ago

hmm that makes sense. I too have skimmed way too much because of the BS. and ya it is refreshing now that I think about it

phh 3y ago

It's interesting because that's my biggest gripe against ChatGPT, it's too verbose and very hard to skim through. Compared to stack overflow answers it'll be easily four times longer. Sure compared to for instance news website, it is less verbose, but those are easy to skim. I'm still able to read through well written text without skimming, though yes most of the texts I'll read I'll skim through, then go back and then to improve my global understanding, which I think is beneficial

brokencode 3y ago
I think it depends on the subject, as this isn’t something I’ve had issues with personally. I’d suggest asking ChatGPT to respond with concise answers. Or perhaps tell it that you are familiar with the subject and don’t need the basic details explained.
savanaly 3y ago
Prepare a statement to copy paste at the start of every session asking it to respond in a concise way. And maybe include an example of how you want its response to look. I guarantee good results. Assuming we’re speaking of 4.