- Explicit, concrete criteria beat vague instructions like "be conservative" — and a noisy category damages trust in every other category, not just itself.
- Few-shot examples generalize to novel cases; enumerated exception lists only match what was listed. Use examples when a scenario mentions novel or evolving patterns.
- Schemas guarantee shape, never meaning. Making fields nullable rather than required is the highest-yield schema principle — required fields on absent data pressure fabrication.
- Retry works on format/structure/placement errors; it cannot manufacture information genuinely absent from what was provided.
- The batch worst-case is wait-for-window plus up to 24 hours — not just the 24 hours alone. Blocking work stays synchronous regardless of cost savings.
- Self-review is structurally biased by retained generation context; independent review instances beat both extended thinking and "be critical" prompting. Attention dilution is a capacity-to-attend problem a bigger window doesn't solve.
Key Takeaways
Estimated time: 3 minutes