I told Chat GPT there was an 'extremely lazy person' here — and its answers got way better | Tech Radar

Overview

I told Chat GPT there was an 'extremely lazy person' here — and its answers got way better

A surprisingly effective way to make AI skip the fluff

Details

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Sometimes, Chat GPT answers feel like they're written to impress rather than help, but this small tweak to your prompts can carve a shortcut right through them.

For all its vaunted power, Chat GPT sometimes comes off as insecure and desperate to show every detail it has to hand, regardless of relevance to your actual question. My latest trick gets it to understand that you don't want to hack your way through a bramble of words.

It's simple — tell the AI, in the middle of your query, that there's an “extremely lazy person here”. It can turn an overly verbose response into something far more practical, and sometimes surprisingly clever.

Chat GPT's hidden creativity levers and how to flip them

This trick will have Chat GPT and Gemini get straight to the point

Try it. It reframes the conversation and your goals, nudging the AI away from textbook thoroughness and toward the bare (though still complete) minimum.

In practice, the difference can feel immediate. Ask for help cooking pasta, and you would normally get a tidy sequence of steps that includes timing, water ratios, and reminders about seasoning.

Add the "lazy" qualifier, and suddenly you only get the basics. In this case, “boil water, add a little salt, dump pasta, stir once, taste until not crunchy, drain, eat.” It is hard to argue with the efficiency, even if it might leave a few culinary purists wincing.

The same effect shows up in more complex tasks — a request for help organizing a workday might usually deliver a plan with hourly blocks and productivity tips. With the added phrase, one version boiled it down to — “Pick three things, do them first, ignore everything else until done.”

The advice reads almost bluntly, yet it captures a truth that the longer answer has buried under layers of structure.

What makes this trick interesting is not just that it shortens responses, but that it changes their priorities. Chat GPT is trained to be complete, which the AI model often translates into a need to over explain.

By framing the user as someone unwilling to wade through details, the model starts going for clarity in a different way — it trims context, cuts disclaimers, and leans on instinct.

Tired of Chat GPT baiting you with follow-up questions? Make this one change

Of course, there are limits. Some topics benefit from depth, and stripping them down too far can remove useful nuance. The "lazy" trick works best in everyday scenarios where the goal is simply to get moving, not to master a subject.

Even so, the appeal is easy to understand — small prompt choices can steer tone, length, and even personality. This particular tweak is a reminder that the simplest instruction is sometimes the most effective.

Follow Tech Radar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow Tech Radar on Tik Tok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on Whats App too.

➡️ Read our full guide to the best business laptops

1. Best overall: Dell Precision 5690
2. Best on a budget: Acer Aspire 5
3. Best Mac Book: Apple Mac Book Pro 14-inch (M4)

Eric Hal Schwartz is a freelance writer for Tech Radar with more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of the world and technology. For the last five years, he served as head writer for Voicebot.ai and was on the leading edge of reporting on generative AI and large language models. He's since become an expert on the products of generative AI models, such as Open AI’s Chat GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and every other synthetic media tool. His experience runs the gamut of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and live events. Now, he's continuing to tell the stories people want and need to hear about the rapidly evolving AI space and its impact on their lives. Eric is based in New York City.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

1 Self-emptying finally comes to Dyson vacuums, but you'll need to wait to get your hands on the new Dok

2'I don’t like it when doomers are out scaring people': Nvidia on why AI rhetoric damages the US chances to lead in the AI race

3 Rabbit’s Cyberdeck is a portable, Linux-based vibe coding device

4'You pick something heavy up and you walk with it': A celebrity PT recommends this back-to-basics move as the best strength exercise for over 50s

5 These small wireless speakers are huge on connectivity for a nice price

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Key Takeaways

• I told Chat GPT there was an 'extremely lazy person' here — and its answers got way better

• A surprisingly effective way to make AI skip the fluff

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• Sometimes, Chat GPT answers feel like they're written to impress rather than help, but this small tweak to your prompts can carve a shortcut right through them

• For all its vaunted power, Chat GPT sometimes comes off as insecure and desperate to show every detail it has to hand, regardless of relevance to your actual question