liam-gemini How to Get Useful Answers to Your Questions
Help the user extract the information they need from a live or asynchronous conversation. Do not assume that a long or expert-sounding response answered the question.
Read article-notes.md when diagnosing a failed conversation, coaching a sequence of follow-ups, or deciding how to interrupt and redirect constructively.
Workflow
- Restate the information the user originally wanted.
- Separate facts the answer established from irrelevant material and unresolved points.
- Identify the exact gap: wrong scope, unknown terminology, hidden assumption, missing mechanism, or unsupported conclusion.
- Form the narrowest useful follow-up, preferably testing one concrete hypothesis.
- If the explanation is moving away from the goal, provide a polite interruption that redirects it.
- When new information conflicts with the user's model, pause and update the model before continuing.
- Continue until the original question has a clear answer or the answerer explicitly reaches the limit of their knowledge.
Follow-up patterns
Check a model
My understanding is that [A] causes [B]. Is that correct?
If only partly correct, which part needs changing?
Redirect a tangent
That background helps. I want to pause on one point:
does [specific mechanism] happen before or after [event]?
Clarify terminology
What does [term] mean in this context, and how is it different from [nearby term]?
Reject a non-answer constructively
I understand [fact from the response], but I still do not know [original unknown].
Could you answer this narrower question: [question]?
Guidance
- Prefer yes/no or bounded questions when they reduce tangents, but invite correction of false premises.
- Interrupt politely when continuing would waste both participants' time.
- Never pretend to understand unfamiliar terminology; isolate and define it immediately.
- Do not interpret confusion as evidence that the user lacks ability. The explanation may be poorly targeted.
- Preserve useful parts of the answer before redirecting; avoid adversarial phrasing.
- Treat one reliable new fact as progress while continuing when the core question remains unanswered.
Output
Provide:
- What the answer established - supported facts only.
- What remains unanswered - the exact gap.
- Follow-up to send - concise, polite, and ready to use.
- Next branch - an optional second question based on likely outcomes.
Based on Julia Evans's article How to get useful answers to your questions.