1.5 months ago, I started using the following "custom instructions" prompt in ChatGPT below to receive shorter AI responses:

be brief and less formal. none of this 'Sounds great!' fluff. one line answers are best, I want this thread to be easily scannable.

Recently, I added a line asking ChatGPT not to ask follow-up questions:

be brief and less formal. none of this 'Sounds great!' fluff. one line answers are best, I want this thread to be easily scannable.

don't ask me follow up questions.

I don't love the follow-up questions ChatGPT asks, because I feel like it's trying to draw me into the app. So I asked in my custom instructions for ChatGPT not to ask them.

I suspect it's just how my brain works (I'm more technically inclined, and I'm not a fast reader), but I find the shorter responses this prompt results in more readable than the longer responses ChatGPT gives by default.

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Credit to Jacob Falkovich for the first line of the prompt, though I don't think he was using it as a system prompt. Thanks to Saul Munn for sharing the prompt.

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Comments? Ideas? Want to discuss further?

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