Vibe writing maxims
Some vibe-writing maxims:
- While writing, have two windows open: one for the writing, and the other one for ChatGPT. Previously he used to consult ChatGPT a couple of times for internet research, but now the role has transitioned to be a more conversational thought partner, helping you riff-raff on the idea for the essay. (Let’s say you’re writing an essay about tarrifs, and you want to understand what the general consensus is, so that you could provide an unique insight that can counter-position to the general consensus. It’s particularly helpful to provide this). Deep Research is also effective in productizing the ‘secondary research’ part of any essay where you have to crawl all over the internet to then derive the analysis from (Deep Research is basically a Mckinsey level research analyst at your doorstep helping you with this part of the process)
- It also helps with alternative word seeking. Let’s say we want to find an alternate word to “outrage”, and you can give some references to ground them so that it generates a close cousin you’re expecting. This can be done on a word level, sentence level, or even on a paragraph level.
- AI can help in fleshing out the essay with a meta-analysis, your first pass roughest-rough draft (even half-way through), you could probe ChatGPT to analyse if you’re getting to the core of the argument quickly? is it building momentum? is it a good opening, or there could be some alternate openings, closings?
- In essays which involve more argument analysis, I also apply some of these questions inspired by Lex Fridman’s interview style. For eg:
| Question | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Can you steelman the case for …? | Elicit strongest argument for.. |
| Can you strawman the case for..? | Address counterarguments for.. |
| Can we break this down into first principles… | Analyse from basic axioms |
| What happens if we take this to the extremes.. | Test robustness when it comes to the edge cases |
- The more we use AI-assisted writing, there is a big risk of the writing sounding like AI. The line needs to be tread carefully where you use AI for asking good questions, identify flaws, improve/edit content, not to actually put words in your mouth. I also use this quite extensively to remove the filler words such as dwelve, em-dashes and the usual AI-generated copypasta: `Identify and remove any generic or overused phrases that make the writing sound artificial. Replace common AI phrases with more original, specific language.
End of post
Subscribe to get future posts via email (or grab the RSS feed). 2-3 ideas every month across design and tech
Read more
- Breadboarding, shaping, slicing, and steelthreading solutions with AI agentsproduct-management
- How I started building softwares with AI agents being non technicalagentic-engineering
- Legible and illegible tasks in organisationsproduct
- L2 Fat marker sketchesdesign
- Writing as moats for humanswriting
- Beauty of second degree probesdecision-making
- Read raw transcriptsknowledge
- Boundary objects as the new prototypesprototyping
- One way door decisionsproduct
- Finished softwares should existproduct
- Essay Quality Rankerobsidian
- Export LLM conversations as snippetsbrowser-extension
- Flipping questions on its headinterviewing
- Vibe writing maximswriting
- How I blog with Obsidian, Cloudflare, AstroJS, Githubwriting
- How I build greenfield apps with AI-assisted codingai-coding
- We have been scammed by the Gaussian distribution clubmathematics
- Classify incentive problems into stag hunts, and prisoners dilemmasgame-theory
- I was wrong about optimal stoppingmathematics
- Thinking like a ship
- Hyperpersonalised N=1 learningeducation
- New mediums for humans to complement superintelligenceai-coding
- Maxims for AI assisted codingai-coding
- Personal Website Starter Kitai-coding
- Virtual bookshelvesaesthetics
- It's computational and AI everythingai-coding
- Public gardens, secret routesdigital-garden
- Git way of learning to codeai-coding
- Kaomoji generatorsoftware
- Copy, Paste and Citecuriosities
- Style Transfer in AI writingai-coding
- Understanding codebases without using codeai-coding
- Vibe coding with Cursorai-coding
- Virtuoso Guide for Personal Memory Systemsmemory
- Writing in Future Pastwriting
- Publish Originally, Syndicate Elsewhereblogging
- Poetic License of Designdesign
- Idea in the shower, testing before breakfastsoftware
- Technology and regulation have a dance of ice and firetechnology
- How I ship "stuff"software
- Weekly TODO List on CLIcli
- Writing is thinkingwriting
- Song of Shapes, Words and Pathscreativity
- How do we absorb ideas better?knowledge
- Read writers who operatewriting
- Brew your ideas lazilyideas
- Vibescreativity
- Trees, Branches, Twigs and Leaves — Mental Models for Writingwriting
- Compound Interest of Private Notesknowledge
- Conceptual Compression for LLMsai-coding
- Meta-analysis for contradictory research findingsdigital-health
- Beauty of Zettelswriting
- Proof of workproduct
- Gauging previous work of new joinees to the teamleadership
- Task management for product managersproduct
- Stitching React and Rails togetherai-coding
- Exploring "smart connections" for note takingknowledge
- Deploying Home Cooked Apps with Railssoftware
- Self Marketing
- Repetitive Copypromptingwriting
- Questions to ask every decadejournalling
- Balancing work, time and focusproductivity
- Hyperlinks are like cashew nutswriting
- Brand treatments, Design Systems, Vibesdesign
- How to spot human writing on the internet?writing
- Can a thought be an algorithm?product
- Opportunity Harvestingcareers
- How does AI affect UI?design
- Everything is a prioritisation problemproduct-management
- Nowlifestyle
- How I do product roastsproduct
- The Modern Startup Stacksoftware
- In-person vision transmissionproduct
- How might we help children invent for social good?social-design
- The meeting before the meetingmeetings
- Design that's so bad it's actually gooddesign
- Breaking the fourth wall of an interviewinterviewing
- Obsessing over personal websitessoftware
- Convert v0.dev React to Rails ViewComponentsrails
- English is the hot new programming languagesoftware
- Better way to think about conflictsconflict-management
- The role of taste in building productsdesign
- World's most ancient public health problemsoftware
- Dear enterprises, we're tired of your subscriptionssoftware
- Products need not be user centereddesign
- Pluginisation of Modern Softwaredesign
- Let's make every work 'strategic'consulting
- Making Nielsen's heuristics more digestibledesign
- Startups are a fertile ground for risk takingentrepreneurship
- Insights are not just a salad of factsdesign
- Minimum Lovable Productproduct
- Methods are lifejackets not straight jacketsmethodology
- How to arrive at on-brand colours?design
- Minto principle for writing memoswriting
- Importance of Whytask-management
- Quality Ideas Trump Executionsoftware
- How to hire a personal doctor
- Why I prefer indie softwareslifestyle
- Use code only if no code failscode
- Personal Observation Techniquesdesign
- Design is a confusing worddesign
- A Primer to Service Design Blueprintsdesign
- Rapid Journey Prototypingdesign
- Directory Structure Visualizercli
- AI git commitscli
- Do's and Don'ts of User Researchdesign
- Design Manifestodesign
- Complex project management for productproducts
- How might we enable patients and caregivers to overcome preventable health conditions?digital-health
- Pedagogy of the Uncharted — What for, and Where to?education
- Future of Ageing with Mehdi Yacoubiinterviewing
- Future of Equity with Ludovick Petersinterviewing
- Future of Mental Health with Kavya Raointerviewing
- Future of Tacit knowledge with Celeste Volpiinterviewing
- Future of Rural Innovation with Thabiso Blak Mashabainterviewing
- Future of unschooling with Che Vanniinterviewing
- Future of work with Laetitia Vitaudinterviewing
- How might we prevent acquired infections in hospitals?digital-health
- The soul searching yearsentrepreneurship
- Design education amidst social tribulationsdesign
- How might we assist deafblind runners to navigate?social-design