Claude defaults to thorough. Sometimes you don’t want thorough. You want the short version that covers most cases.
The Prompt
Give me the 80/20 on this. What's the 20% I need to know
that covers 80% of real-world usage? Skip the edge cases for now.Examples
Learning a new tool:
Give me the 80/20 on Docker. What commands and concepts
will I use 80% of the time? I'll learn the rest later.Starting a project:
What's the minimum viable setup for a Next.js app with auth?
Give me just the 20% of decisions that matter. Skip anything
I can change later.Code review:
Look at this PR and give me only the findings that actually
matter. Skip style nitpicks and minor suggestions.
Focus on things that could break or cause problems.Why this works
Most Claude answers are too long because Claude tries to be complete. Completeness isn’t always what you need. When you’re learning, exploring, or deciding, the condensed version is more useful. You can always ask follow-up questions to go deeper on the parts that matter.