Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong voice-dictates internal messages to an AI agent that condenses them using Paul Graham's writing philosophy

@dorvonlevi @coinbase And it works 🫡

The problem's that LLMs don't actually "understand" nuance; they just predict the next token. If you strip all the "fluff," you're often just removing the context an AI needs to keep the logic sound. Give it a month, and we'll see these "concise" prompts causing massive hallucination spikes.

P.P.S. The second most frequent feedback is that I come on too strong. Still waiting for the @paulg tweet that fixes that one.

@dorvonlevi @paulg Keep it coming!

@brian_armstrong @dorvonlevi @paulg I received all this same feedback (directly from Brian) in my first few weeks at Coinbase and it turned me into a much better leader and operator. Grateful

@dorvonlevi @coinbase i was/am this way and then i was diagnosed with autism and adhd so that's fun

I clearly don't have the answer :) agree in principle that over has fewer downsides than under. But there's context that carries the logic, and context that's there because cutting felt risky. The second can feel like insurance for the writer, paid by the reader.

Generally I'm more lax on overcommunication for coordination. For ideas it's trickier: every extra sentence risks pulling focus, and do it consistently and people learn to skim you. Then even the sentences that matter get glossed over...

@brian_armstrong @paulg and yet your last line in a quote retweet of paul's would've actually been concise

@brian_armstrong @paulg Reserve transparency matters more than marketing. When a stablecoin can point to specific gold holdings and regular audits, it tweaks the risk vibe completely $USDKG

😍

@brian_armstrong @paulg agree this is a super good prompt

@dorvonlevi @coinbase I think Angela, gave me that same advice when I first joined Coinbase to be less verbose (and to not reply back to her 4am messages within seconds). But as we worked together more and more, the late night messages with extra details were alll for the important things!

@brian_armstrong @paulg Best use of an agent is a ruthless editor with taste. The trick is making it cut the sentence and explain what meaning died on the floor.

@brian_armstrong @paulg I need a harness for my harness so it doesn't keep writing faster than I can read (and I read quickly)

@dorvonlevi @paulg No feedback is too strong if it helps fix the problem

@brian_armstrong @paulg This is the gold standard for writing. Every word pulling its weight.

Saved this as a writing prompt on PromptCentral — use it to push any AI to write with the same density and zero fluff 👇

🔗 https://www.promptcentral.app/prompts/cfbbf3a7-9ae9-4c9c-96aa-34a7b8d07e74?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=copy&utm_campaign=prompt_share

#Writing #PromptEngineering #PaulGraham

@brian_armstrong @paulg Using that prompt might shorten any text well.

@brian_armstrong @paulg Ironic because you can summarize most of pg’s writing now by saying he’s a wanker

@brian_armstrong @paulg voice + prompt = clean output

@brian_armstrong @paulg Hi Brian how about it screwing around ending vaults then saying we're not ending vaults when I have hundreds of thousands of dollars on your platform