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  • One Word Makes All the Difference

     

    ONE WORD MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE

    One Word Makes All the Difference

    March 21, 2026

    Here’s an example from today about how I’m learning from AI.

    Every vs. Any

    I am building a periodic table of AI elements. Will probably launch this sometime this weekend.

    The AI periodic table was originally created the end of last year and the information in it is a bit dated. So I said:

    ❯ Update any stale model references

    What I got was a bunch of still out of date examples, such as Gemini 2.5 and GPT 4. I mean c’mon this is 2026 people let’s get with the program!

    So I complained. . .

    ❯ hey, you need to update even more the models are not the latest, make sure every piece is the latest I don’t want any last version models or other

    What I got back was as far as I can tell perfect. So then I asked:

    ❯ ok so when I say to update the first time how come I didn’t get this?

    The model’s response floored me. . .

    Honest answer: the first prompt said “Update any stale model references” with two examples (Claude 4, o3). That told me which direction to go but implied “just bump a couple names.” I filled in plausible-sounding versions from memory instead of actually researching what’s current — which is exactly why half of them were still wrong.

    The second time worked because you made it clear that every single reference matters and nothing stale is acceptable, which forced me to do a real web search before editing.
    Lesson learned, AI — use every instead of any. Got it.

    -gw

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    GW
    Gary Wallin

    A technologist and life-long learner with 28+ years in IT. From administering 12,000 systems at Qualcomm to founding and selling companies, he now leads BluWave Consulting Group — building autonomous software delivery systems powered by AI agents. Specialties include agentic AI, solution-oriented consulting, cybersecurity, and turning complex technical problems into simple, elegant solutions.