Beginners take the first answer and leave. The real workflow is a conversation:
- "Shorter, and less formal."
- "Good, but option 2 is wrong because X. Redo it with that in mind."
- "Give me three very different versions."
- "Play devil's advocate against your own answer."
And the single most useful trick: make Claude interview you first. "Ask me questions until you have enough to do this well" produces dramatically better results on anything complex.
Why this works
Each reply is a fresh prediction shaped by everything above it in the conversation. Your feedback becomes part of that material, which is why the second answer can be so much better than the first.
Practice
Pick something you are planning, a trip, a purchase, a difficult conversation.
Help me plan [thing]. Do not give advice yet. Interview me, one question at a time, until you know enough to give a genuinely tailored plan. Then give me the plan plus the one risk I am probably underestimating.
Done when: you have pushed back on Claude at least twice in one conversation and got a better result because of it.