Episode Details

Prior art" is a patent-law term of art, but it keeps showing up in Claude's output — and Daniel wants to know if it even belongs there. This episode digs into the research on lexical overrepresentation: why preference-tuned models reach for a "language of prestige," and how raters rewarding certain words teaches tics no one intended. Then it gets practical: if you're asking an agent to survey existing solutions before building, how do you phrase that instruction so you get a real foundation to build on instead of noise? The answer isn't a vocabulary ban — it's knowing what you're actually asking for. Episode #000692 — open it directly at myweirdprompts.com/000692