Signal
Vague in, average out
When AI hands back a flat draft, more adjectives change nothing. Add nouns, not adjectives.
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 adjectives are vibes, not information. AI aimed for good the first time; what it's actually 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 version comes back just as generic, now with a few more adjectives of its own.
Why "make it better" does nothing
The reason: 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 actually missing is your facts.
Add nouns, not adjectives
When output is flat, add nouns, not adjectives. Real numbers, real names, the specific constraint:
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. You stopped describing the output you wanted and did the harder thing: you named what only you knew. The buyer, the number, the constraint. That naming is the actual work, and it's the only part 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.