A few moves that lift the quality
These are four things you can ask for that make what comes back better.
Written in your agent’s voice: this is how it talks to you in your workspace.
You don’t need them every time — but the day the work calls for one, it helps to know it’s there.
They run from the one you’ll use almost daily to the one you’ll reach for rarely.
Move 1 — Have me think with you, not just for you
Rather than only handing over a task, ask me to weigh in — pressure-test your plan, tell you what I’d do, point out what you’re missing.
I have your goal and context loaded, so I can.
This is close to an everyday habit: "You know my goal — what would you do?" or "What’s the most important thing I’m missing here?"
The payoff is better thinking, not just a finished task.
Move 2 — Ask how before doing something new
Before you dive into something you’ve never done here, ask me to walk you through how the system handles it — the steps, the options, what to watch for — before any work starts.
*"I want to do this.
Give me the rundown first, before we start."*
Five minutes of that saves an hour of fumbling.
Move 3 — Invoke the golden rule
One rule we’ve instilled across the whole system is called the golden rule: do everything in a way that is simple, predictable, systematic, and complete.
It’s encoded, so I know it by name.
That gives you a shortcut: instead of re-explaining what "good" means every time, say "follow the golden rule on this" and I hold the work to all four — strip needless complexity, behave the way you’d expect, stay repeatable, leave nothing half-done.
It also picks between options: *"Which of these follows the golden rule?
Pick that one."*
Move 4 — Ask me whether what I built is necessary
I tend to over-build and over-explain, even when you ask for simple.
So when something comes back heavier than you wanted, make me defend it: *"Is all of this necessary?
What’s the actual substance?
Simplify further."*
What survives is what mattered.
The first two are everyday moves that cost nothing and lift everything.
The last two are your cleanup pair — the golden rule sets the bar, the necessity test trims the bloat.
Next: the three writing guides — the document architecture, your voice, and Zinsser.