Words that feel exact but are not
Some words feel like real instructions. They are not. They are feelings.
Look at these, and ask yourself what each one actually tells a stranger to do:
- “Make it fast.”
- “Keep it simple.”
- “Make it secure.”
- “Make the design clean.”
- “Handle errors properly.”
- “Make it user-friendly.”
- “Clean up this code.”
- “Make it better.”
Every one of these means something clear in your head and nothing clear on the page.
The measurement test
Here is a test you can apply in three seconds. For any word in your request, ask:
How would I measure this? What number or observation would tell me it is done?
If you cannot answer, the model cannot either. It will pick a meaning and go.
Watch the test work:
| Feeling | Measurement |
|---|---|
| “The page should be fast” | “The page should finish loading in under 3 seconds on a 4G phone connection” |
| “Handle errors properly” | “If the database is unreachable, show the message ‘Could not connect, please try again’ and write the full error to the log file” |
| “Keep it simple” | “Use no libraries other than the ones already in package.json” |
| “Make it secure” | “Passwords must never be stored as plain text. No user should be able to read another user’s cards” |
The right-hand column is longer. That is the cost, and it is small. The left-hand column
produces work you throw away, which is a much bigger cost.
An example worth thinking about
“The site should be fast” is a good example of how local your assumptions are.
Fast on office fibre in a city? Or fast on a 4G phone in a small town, with two bars of
signal, on a five-year-old handset? Those two answers lead to completely different code.
The model does not know which one you meant. It will usually assume the comfortable case,
because most of the text it learned from was written by people with fast connections.
If your users are on slow phones, and you do not say so, you will not find out until they
tell you.
The one exception
There is one time vague words are fine: when you genuinely do not care. If you truly do not
mind which date format is used, do not spend a sentence on it.
Be honest with yourself about which is which. “I do not care” and “I have not thought about
it yet” feel identical while typing and are completely different an hour later.
Try this before the next lesson
- Take the request you wrote in Lesson 2.1. Circle every feeling word.
- Replace each one with a measurement. Notice how much you had to decide.
- Find a place where you honestly do not care. Leave it vague on purpose, and write a note
to yourself that you chose to.