Letters by Burk #161: It's Rarely the Tool

Hi friends,

Three posts this week, and by accident they share a point: it's rarely the tool.

AI turns out slop when you feed it a generic prompt. WordPress, my go-to bad example before this year, turned out fine in version 7. And whether OneNote or Keep wins has less to do with the two apps than with where your work already lives.

Here's my week.

How to Avoid AI Slop

The slop is not the model's fault. Generic prompt in, generic text out. So here are the three things I do about it, and none of them is a secret prompt for sale.

Read it on Medium or on Substack.

WordPress 7 + Divi 5 Changed My Mind About Web Design

For years, WordPress was my example of how not to build a website. Then version 7 and Divi 5 landed on my desk at the agency, and I don't hate it. That says a lot.

Read it on Medium or on Substack.

OneNote vs Google Keep in 2026

One does everything and feels heavy doing it. The other does almost nothing and opens instantly. I use neither at home, but if your work sits in the Microsoft world or the Google world, the choice pretty much makes itself.

Read it on Medium or on Substack.

📎 From the Archive

I wrote this in May 2023, a few months into ChatGPT. Same problem as this week's slop post, same fix, three years earlier.

Read it on Medium or on Substack.

🔧 One tip

When the AI writes something that sounds off, don't just fix the sentence. Write the rule down in a file the model reads every time it writes for you. That way you fix it once, not every single time. My rule files have grown long by now. And it shows in the output.

That's #161. Back soon. ✌️

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