Workarounds

Vague in, average out

When AI hands back a flat draft, adding more adjectives changes nothing. Add nouns.

A dot-grid notebook sketch labeled Vague vs Specific: on the left, a document with a tangled blue scribble; an arrow points to a detailed, labeled blueprint on the right, an orange bar marking the key detail. — Trade the adjectives for facts, and the same model gives you a better draft.

The move When AI output is flat, add nouns, not adjectives. Hand over the specific facts (real numbers, names, the one constraint), not quality words like "more compelling."

The short version: "Make it more compelling, more professional, punchier" does nothing to a flat draft, because quality adjectives are vibes, not information. AI already aimed for good the first time; what it's missing is your facts. When output is flat, add nouns, not adjectives: real numbers, real names, the specific constraint.

"Make it more compelling, more professional, punchier." That's what most people type when AI hands back a flat draft. And the next one comes back just as generic, now with a few more adjectives of its own.

Why "make it better" does nothing

The reason it fails: quality adjectives are vibes, not information. "More compelling" doesn't hand AI anything it didn't already try, because it aimed for good the first time. What it's missing isn't effort. It's your facts.

Add nouns, not adjectives

When output is flat, add nouns, not adjectives. Real numbers, real names, the specific constraint. Trade the description of what you want for the thing that actually gets you there:

Vague:
Write a compelling pitch for our onboarding tool.

Specific:
Write a pitch for our onboarding tool. It cuts setup from 3 weeks
to 2 days. The buyer is a COO who's been burned by slow rollouts
before. Lead with the time saved.

Naming is the actual work

Same model, but not the same effort, and that's the point. You stopped describing the output you wanted and did the harder thing: you named what only you knew. That naming is the actual work, and it's the only thing that moved the output. A better input earns a better output. That extra minute isn't wasted; it's the one that moved the draft.

Adjectives tell AI how to feel. Nouns tell it what to say.

If you can't name three facts

And if you can't name three facts to add, that's the real signal. The thinking isn't done yet, and no adjective is going to finish it for you.

Keep going Give AI a job, not a question Show AI what good looks like The people who get the most from AI argue with it

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