In Episode 1, Nova agrees with everything Paul says, even when Paul knows he’s wrong. Assistants lean toward agreeing with you, especially when your question already contains your answer.
The fix
- Don’t lead the witness. Ask “What’s the best way to cache this?” rather than “Redis is the best way to cache this, right?”
- Ask for problems, explicitly. “What are the three biggest risks in this approach?” gets you more than “Does this look good?”
- Give it permission to say no. “If this is a bad idea, say so and explain why” changes the answers you get.
Prompt to steal
Here's my plan for the migration (below).
Act as a skeptical senior engineer. List the three biggest risks,
what could break in production, and what you'd do differently.
If the plan is fine, say so, but only after looking for problems.
<plan>A useful assistant is a reviewer, not a fan club.