5. Techniques for Improving AI Collaboration Efficiency

By mastering some practical techniques, you can make your collaboration with AI more efficient.

5.1 Be Clear and Specific When Describing Problems

Bad description:

This feature has a problem
Help me optimize it

Good description:

After the user clicks the "Submit" button, the form is not submitted
The browser console reports: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'value' of null
The error occurs on line 23 of form.js

This list loads very slowly and has 1000 items
Please help me add pagination with 20 items per page

Key points:

• Provide specific error information
• Explain the expected result
• Give relevant context

5.2 Do Only One Thing at a Time

Bad approach:

Help me implement login, registration, password recovery, profile center,
password change, and email verification

Good approach:

Implement the login feature first, with these requirements:
- Email and password login
- Remember login state
- Error messages

(After it is done) Now implement the registration feature

(After it is done) Now implement the password recovery feature

Key points:

• Break large tasks into small tasks
• Test and verify after every completed task
• Confirm there are no issues before moving to the next one

5.3 Verify Results Promptly

Bad approach:

• Let AI modify 10 files in a row
• Only discover at the end that the first change was already wrong
• Waste a lot of time

Good approach:

• Modify one file and test immediately
• Confirm there is no problem, then continue
• Correct issues as soon as they are found

Key points:

• Move in small steps and get fast feedback
• Do not blindly trust AI
• Stay in control of the code

5.4 Make Good Use of Context

Technique 1: refer to previous conversation

Implement according to the plan we just discussed
Refer to the previous getUserList function

Technique 2: provide related code

This is the existing user model code:
[paste code]

Please implement the article model in the same style

Technique 3: explain project background

This is an e-commerce project using React + Node.js
It already has a user system and a product system
Now we need to add a shopping cart feature

5.5 Save Useful Conversations

Scenario: you solved a complex problem

How to do it:

1. Record the solution in project documentation
2. Refer to it the next time a similar issue appears
3. Share it with other team members

Example:

Create a document under docs/solutions/:

# Solving the N+1 Query Problem

## Problem Description
When fetching the article list, the system queries the author information once per article,
which causes a performance problem.

## Solution
Use a JOIN query to fetch all the data in one go:

```sql
SELECT articles.*, users.name as author_name
FROM articles
LEFT JOIN users ON articles.author_id = users.id

Result: query time dropped from 2000ms to 50ms

5.6 Learn the Art of Asking Questions

Technique 1: ask "why" first

Why does this code cause a memory leak?
Why should we use useCallback instead of a normal function?

Technique 2: ask for multiple options

What are the different ways to implement user authentication?
What are the pros and cons of each?

Technique 3: ask for explanations

How does this code work?
Can you explain this algorithm in detail?