Retrying LLM failures only helps if something can actually change
Available_Witness581 · reddit · 2026-09-01
A practitioner's observation: a retry only helps if something can change between attempts. When the failure comes from bad context, a broken tool contract, or an impossible state, retrying typically repeats the same mistake while adding cost and latency.
The heuristic: ask "What will be different on the next attempt?" If the answer is "nothing," retrying isn't recovery — it's repetition.
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