Should I keep fixing a chat that went wrong or start a new one?
If corrected mistakes keep returning, prepare a checked handover and start again. Carry forward decisions, not the confusion.
A conversation can carry forward its mistakes as faithfully as its useful decisions. If an assistant keeps returning to an assumption you have rejected or repeating a mistake you have already corrected, I would usually start a new conversation.
First, prepare a handover: what you are trying to achieve, what you have decided, which material is current and what remains unresolved. Mark the mistakes and discarded ideas that should stay discarded. You can ask AI to draft the summary, but check it yourself before carrying it forward.
More room for context does not remove the need to choose what belongs in it. One Sage wrote twenty-six pages for his successor while we were working on the book. Most everyday handovers can be considerably shorter. They need to give the next conversation a sound starting point.
— Martin Poliačik
Try it: Meta-prompting. Ask AI to help clarify the task before it starts solving it.