What is Concise (Prompting)?

Concise prompting is when you explicitly ask the AI to be brief, direct, and to-the-point. Instead of "Explain caching," you say "Explain caching in 2 sentences." The AI cuts out examples, edge cases, and context to give you the core answer quickly—saving tokens and time, but risking oversimplification.

When Should You Use This?

Use concise prompting when you need quick answers, are already familiar with the topic, want to save tokens/cost, or are iterating rapidly. Great for lookups, confirming knowledge, generating lists, or when you'll ask follow-ups if needed. Add phrases like "in 2 sentences," "briefly," "just the key points," "TL;DR."

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• •Using concise for complex topics—oversimplification can miss critical nuances
• •Not asking follow-ups—if the brief answer raises questions, drill deeper with verbose prompts
• •Being too vague—"be brief" can mean 1 sentence or 3 paragraphs; specify length/format
• •Expecting perfection—rushed AI answers skip context that might be important
• •Forgetting you can iterate—start concise, then ask "explain [X] from that answer in detail"

Real-World Examples

• •Quick lookups—"What's the difference between let and const in JS? One sentence."
• •Rapid prototyping—"List 5 marketing ideas for a SaaS product. No explanations."
• •Code snippets—"Show me a Python function to reverse a string. Just code, no comments."
• •Daily standups—AI-generated summaries: "Summarize this PR in 2 bullet points"