7. Banning the Boring
Negative Constraints
Sometimes telling the AI what NOT to do beats telling it what to do. Negative constraints kill the bland, generic patterns LLMs default to.
Rough prompt
Write a thank-you note for my coworker leaving.
Strong prompt
Write a 3-line thank-you to my coworker who's leaving. NO 'best of luck'. NO 'you'll be missed'. NO generic compliments. Mention specifically that she fixed everyone's slides at 11pm and made the office actually fun on Mondays.
Coach note
List the boring phrases you don't want — that single move breaks 80% of generic output.