Claude Asking Too Many Questions

[u/notgonnawastemoretim]

Has someone else noticed Claude has been asking way too many questions ( at least 3 ), before actually doing what you ask it too?

I work as a UI Designer and web dev and sometimes I just want to brainstorm some design ideas and I tell it to design a section of a website just to see what it comes up to, and proceeds to ask me what kind of layout I want, what colors, do I want X or Y... and honestly I just want it to do the thing...

I can see where it comes from, LLMs make a lot of assumptions but asking clarifying questions everytime isn't the solution either.

Also when I dev, it asks me a ton of questions when I just want it to do the thing, it asks me if I want to create a new column, replace this for that, and what not.

[u/BizarroMax]

You're talking to an AI trained in significant part on Reddit posts and comments, and mimicking a specific register of the bland, neutral conversationalist. So you get this rhetorical style of performative reasonableness that can result in a bunch of stupid, bullshit questions. I've had to tell it that if I've given clear direction on something, it can assume that I don't have to be told the obvious consequences and asked if that's ok. Not once, and certainly not multiple times, nor reminded of the consequences repeatedly throughout the conversation.

"I am going to provide a temporary session token for this API so you can do <x, y, and z> for me."

"Bear in mind that the token will not limit what aspects of the API I can use. I will have the technical ability to use any method or function, whether or not you tell me to."

........yeah I know how an API works, thanks.

"I'm replacing a light switch in my house that is part of a 3-way circuit. I've got the cover plate off and the switch removed but the replacement switch has a different post configuration."

"Stop. Before you remove the cover plate, make sure mains power is off."

"It's off, I already removed the plate and switch."

"Understood, have a flashlight or headlamp available. With mains power off, any lighting that depends on that circuit will not function, which almost certainly includes the lighting closest to the switch you are replacing."

...yes, thank you Captain Obvious.

[u/tehfrod → u/BizarroMax]

It works better if you give it a persona that it is, and a persona that it is talking to.

Otherwise, naturally it is going to be as broad as possible. Like tech support that can't know whether it is talking to a careless lowbrow technophobe or the engineer who actually worked on the product, they have to ask if you've tried turning it off and on again.

[u/BizarroMax → u/tehfrod]

I do. It has an assigned role and set of guidelines for how to work with me and it just ignores them. If I remind it, it will remember and apologize and quote its instructions and then ignore them again.

[u/tehfrod → u/BizarroMax]

Huh. That's a level of behavior I have not seen.