We’re AI-first at Storied.
It’s now wired in how we think, how we work, and how we build narratives.
We regularly redefine expectations and raise the ceiling on what AI-generated documents can do for an organization.
The biggest hang-up with AI: when it sounds like AI.
Machine robots don’t always talk like a human. The sentences are a little slick, too staccato, or hollow and devoid of life. As a reader, you start discounting or questioning what you’re reading. Because it feels flat, trite, or just trying too hard.
What you need is an anti-AI slop file.
We’ve created one and we’ll share it with you at the end of the newsletter.
A few cliche examples
Word salad that signals lazy thinking dressed as a fancy outfit:
“Here’s what I want to tell you.” Throat clearing
“Stop doing X. Start doing Y.” A binary presented as a finding.
“It’s never been easier / harder to...” Sounds deep, means nothing.
“The real work is...” Glorifies the invisible layer, gatekeeping as wisdom.
“Not this. Not that. But this.” Two strawmen and a reveal.
“In a world where [X], [Y] becomes [advantage].” Urgency without substance.
“You don’t need more X. You need Y.” Pretends to simplify while saying nothing
“Here’s the truth nobody tells you.” Declares depth, then delivers the obvious.
You probably have your own pet peeve versions of these eye roll phrases.
When AI turns to slop
Most of AI garbage can be sorted into 3 language buckets.
Performative: It’s writing that tries too hard. The cloying set-up, the long expository. The cheap shortcuts. The ahem…throat clearing, barf.
Reductive: When AI hands back an overconfident answer. Or worse, a generic one, that makes you sound basic b*tch. Or reveals you’re talking out of your ass, and you don’t even know it.
Flattery: When AI fluffs you up. The sycophant. the fluffer nutter. This is the most dangerous, because our egos love encouragement and validation.
Unfortunately, you have to manually override these default settings.
The solution? An anti-AI slop file
We’ve written our own here at Storied.
And it fires every time we prompt AI. It checks our work for AI slop.
The stuff that makes me AI “vomit in my mouth.”
What we all want to read - is something with voice, personality, point of view. A deeper shade of soul. A little swerve. Some extra sass. Not vanilla beige. Or Restoration Hardware gray. Or general issue khakis.
This is why documentation matters so much in an AI world.
Many of our files at Storied now live in private GitHub repos. That’s just a fancy way of saying we’re AI nerds with a repository that lets us work with language as a code base. With a boot run file, governance and version control.
Don’t worry, you don’t need that fancy setup. To kill the AI slop.
GitHub is a great place to also share code and docs publicly.
Today we’re sharing our first one. Something you can immediately download and use.
Just point Claude or ChatGPT at the URL and ask it to install it into your LLM of choice. Either in a folder or workflow.
https://github.com/storied-inc/resources
The cliche formulas and patterns above are in there, each with an instruction for what to do instead. The rest of it is the specific tells. This is what survive a normal edit because they’re structural rather than a matter of word choice.
Other people have written their own versions, which is the point. Take ours or write your own. Just stop letting AI sound like a drunk spokesperson on your behalf.
AI is f-in incredible!
You just have to train your dragon.
Michael
P.S. When you’re ready, here’s three ways I can help:
If you want a second set of eyes on your narrative, reply and tell me more
If you need narrative architecture, I help CEOs & operators do just that. Apply for Q3
If you need a keynote speaker, I do them on a select basis. Let’s talk