Stop pasting
the f*cking AI answer.

What you just did:

Someone asked you a real question, an ACTUAL one. They had the context and the best intentions. They came to you specifically (what an honor). Then you took the question, dumped it into a prompt box and pasted the result back. Bet you felt super productive and smart and all that... Sorry to break it to you, you didn't get any smarter, you just proved there's zero difference between asking you and asking the AI.

Guess who the AI is replacing first?

In case it wasn't clear, here's what you answered: Great question! There are several key factors to consider when approaching this nuanced topic that someone actually bothered to think about. Let's break it down step by step, again:

1. Understanding the context — It's important to first establish a solid foundation, because it's literally what you asked in the first place
2. Key considerations — When evaluating this, you should keep in mind that... I'm sure everything I'm about to say never once crossed your mind
3. Best practices — Industry experts generally recommend this Google search you could have done in 3 seconds

In conclusion, the answer ultimately depends on your specific situation. Hope this helps, champ! Let me know if you'd like me to elaborate on any of these points. Wow... Enlightening, the new Buddha walks among us. Thanks for this pearl of wisdom I could have gotten on my own.

This is deeply disrespectful

The person you replied to has the same AI you do. If they wanted the generic LLM answer, they'd have it in seconds without talking to you, which is, by the way, easier. But they asked you because they wanted you. Your opinion. Your experience. Your taste. Everything a model doesn't have.

What you sent instead was: "I didn't have the patience to read your question properly and actually answer it, so here, this is what the robot said". It's the conversational equivalent of forwarding an email.

You're not smarter than anyone. You're just making someone lose respect for you in real time, in a way that's hard to walk back. You traded your opinion for a fortune cookie line and moved on with your life.

If you keep doing this, then why should anyone ask you anything in the first place?

The fix is pretty simple

1. You can use AI. It's a nice tool. It's there to be used, but for the love of our collective sanity, READ what the model said. All of it. Yes, even the lists, the code, the whole thing...
2. Decide what's useful and what isn't. Models are confident in ways that have nothing to do with being right. Half of it is probably wrong, generic, or both. That's when it isn't a straight up hallucination.
3. Write your own answer. Three sentences of yours beat three paragraphs of slop every time. Nobody has ever said "Damnnnn boy... I wish that reply had been longer and more robotic".
4. If you genuinely need to quote the model, fine, there's good stuff in there! Just explain why. "I asked Claude and this part actually checks out:", that's ok! At least you read what happened there, we still like you
5. If you have nothing to add, say nothing. Silence is a contribution too. Or say "I have nothing to add". That'll save everyone's time.

"But I want to help!"

No, you don't. You're trying to look helpful without doing the work of being helpful. There's a difference there.

Helping is reading carefully, thinking, and replying with something only you could have said, or at least polished. Pasting stuff from an AI tells the person their question wasn't worth your time, only a chatbot's. How would you feel?

This site is not anti-AI.

Use the tools. Use them every day. Use them to draft faster, be more creative, learn more, unblock yourself. Great. That's what they exist for. The output is a starting point, not a deliverable. Treat it like a junior intern's first draft, because that's exactly what it is. Edit it. Cut it. Disagree with it. Make it yours, or don't send it.

How to use this?

Next time someone dumps a wall of unedited LLM text in your DMs, your Slack, your code review, honestly anywhere, send them this:

dontpastetheai.com

Click to copy.

Too heavy?

No worries. Rather send the office-safe version? We got that too:

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