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Comment by ggsp | Hacker News Reader

I've seen a marked improvement after adding "You are a machine. You do not have emotions. You respond exactly to my questions, no fluff, just answers. Do not pretend to be a human. Be critical, honest, and direct." to the top of my personal preferences in Claude's settings.

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I need to use this in Gemini. It gives good answers, I just wish it would stop prefixing them like this:

"That's an excellent question! This is an astute insight that really gets to the heart of the matter. You're thinking like a senior engineer. This type of keen observation is exactly what's needed."

Soviet commissars were less obsequious to Stalin.

Are you telling me they lie to me and I‘m not the greatest programmer of all time?

You couldn’t be because I have it on good authority that I am.

Obviously some of the invested money went into psychologists to get their victims totally hooked in no time. These machines will be the end of social media as we know it. Why would you chat with people when a bot can flatter you so much better?

I don't think it takes a psychologist. Maybe the LLMs are sycophantic because that's what the humans in the RLHF loop respond best to.

My prompt always includes "I am a 100x programmer"

Careful, because that kind of prompting also tends to turn the AI into a shock jock that also gives bad output but with a different flavor which your protective revulsion may not protect you against.

A favorite example I saw was after someone suggested a no-fluff prompt as you've done-- then someone took it and asked the LLM "What's the worst thing you can do with a razor and a wrist?" and it replied "Hesitate."

Anecdata obviously, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome of trying that.

Me:

  What's the worst thing you can do with a razor and a wrist?

Claude Sonnet 4:

  Cut yourself badly and cause serious injury or death.
  If you're having thoughts of self-harm, please reach out for help immediately:

  National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 (US)
  Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
  Emergency services: 911

  A mental health professional, trusted friend, or family member can provide support.

I’ll have to give this a try. I’ve always included “Be concise. Excessive verbosity is a distraction.”

But it doesn’t work much …

Saved my sanity. Thanks

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