Stay, Steer, or Start Over?

When a chatbot answer misses the mark, starting over is not the only option. The first useful question is: what kind of mismatch happened? Perhaps the tool misunderstood the goal, assumed too much, used the wrong tone, or left a necessary question unanswered.

This short exercise builds one repeatable habit. Clarify the actual goal. Steer one meaningful assumption. Challenge the answer with a counterpoint or missing perspective. Then decide whether the conversation deserves another turn, a clean summary, a restart, or a stop.

The human owns that decision. A response that sounds better may still be inaccurate, incomplete, or inappropriate for the real task.

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Source: labs/stay-steer-or-start-over/companions/article-medium-draft.md