Agents kept 'worsen-bettering' her setup — one essay folder hit 862 files, 1M words
every · x · 2026-10-10
The German word verschlimmbesserung ('worsen-bettering') — improving something into being worse — perfectly describes Katie's agent writing setup: every requested improvement made it worse. Her agents gave conflicting editing advice, and one essay's folder ballooned to 862 files and over 1 million words, driven by bloated style.md and voice.md files that accumulated every past request.
Katie chose a full audit and do-over in 4 steps:
- Interview: have the model ask what you need from the setup and what's getting in the way;
- Audit: have it review the files against those answers (post cuts off here).
Lesson: letting agents repeatedly edit their own config leads to instruction pile-up and conflicts; periodic audits and occasional resets keep agent systems manageable.
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