Have you ever been scrolling through an article,
maybe some kind of report, and you just get this
feeling? Oh, yeah. That unmistakable, boring,
repetitive text, it just feels cold, empty. Yeah,
it's like it was written for a machine, you know,
it uses all the same smart words like tapestry
or vibrate. Real people just don't talk like
that, especially when they're trying to explain
something. Exactly. And that right there, that's
the enemy. We're calling it Slop. It's basically
junk food for the internet. Welcome to the Deep
Dive. This whole conversation we're about to
have is based on a guide with one mission, really,
to help you humanize your AI output. We're here
to help you cut through all that noise. We are
unpacking what the guide calls the Slop Evader
Mindset. I'm going to look at some specific prompt
engineering techniques, but more importantly,
a really strict four -step workflow to make sure
everything you create feels like a real person
actually wrote it. We'll get into which words
you should just delete on site, how to talk to
the AI like an assistant, not a magician, and
how to use the past to clean up the future of
your content. OK, so let's start with that core
definition. What really is slop? Because it's
more than just a few robotic words. It is. At
its core, it's content made without any human
care or perspective. The AI is trained to sound.
agreeable and authoritative, so it defaults to
this really formal wordy text. It uses delve
when it should just say, look into. And if you
publish that stuff, there are immediate consequences.
Absolutely. The first problem is just the reader.
They clicked your link because they wanted to
hear from you. And if they hit a wall of boring,
homogenized text, they're gone. They get bored.
They get bored. And when they get bored, Google
notices. That low engagement can really hurt
your visibility. So this gets to the idea of
who's in charge. I love them. analogy from the
guide on this. You have to think of yourself
as the chef. The AI can get you the ingredients,
you know, it can chop the vegetables, but it
can't cook the meal. Right. If you treat the
AI like a magic button, you're just serving microwave
food. A slop evader always treats the AI like
a helper, a very powerful helper, but you're
the boss. That is a perfect analogy. And this
brings us to, I think, a vulnerable admission.
The reason people keep the slop in the first
place. Yeah, that's a tough one. We keep it because
it sounds professional. We think that formal
language means we're an expert. It's true. I
still find myself fighting that instinct. Early
in my career, I'd always use utilize instead
of use, because I thought simple words sounded
too casual. But the guide is right. Simple words
actually show clarity and confidence. It's about
stopping the need to delve into complex transformations
and just look into changes. Exactly. It invites
the reader in instead of pushing them away. You
have to actively hunt down words like optimize,
comprehensive, synergy, harness. They're all
red flags that the AI is just padding for word
count. So if we really commit to this, to being
the chef and cutting out all that filler, how
does this directly affect my website's visibility
and health? Slop hurts ranking because board
readers quickly click away. OK, let's get into
the mechanics. Because knowing what slop is,
doesn't help unless we know how to prompt the
AI correctly. It seems like it's not enough to
just have a prompt. You need to mix in real human
data. Exactly. And that brings us to the grade
five student rule. It's really powerful. When
you tell the AI, explain this to me like I'm
10 years old. You're not asking for childish
content. You're just forcing it to use core concepts,
right? Can't hide. Precisely. It can't hide behind
jargon. It has to use analogies in simple language,
which proves it actually understands the concept.
It's a great defense against the AI just repeating
stuff it's seen. And you have to be so specific.
The guide has a great example prompt, something
like, write about fixing a flat bicycle tire.
Use short sentences. Do not use words like comprehensive,
optimize, or utilize. Talk like a mechanic helping
a best friend. Start with, first, flip your bike
upside down. See? That prompt tells it what to
write, who to be, who it's talking to, and what
words are off limits. You're modeling the voice
before it even starts writing. And even then,
you can't fully trust the output. Yeah. Which
brings us to this time machine idea. Right. So
after the AI gives you that first draft, the
Slopivator assumes it's still got some sludge
in it. The time machine concept is where you
copy an AI phrase like, uh, the best method is
to securely attach the patch and then you search
for it on Reddit or Quora. But how do you do
that? How do you filter by date? Because if you
just search now, you're just going to get more
AI slop. That's the key. In a Google search,
you go to tools. then custom range, and you set
the to date as November 30th, 2022. That date
is so important because it's right before the
big public LLM started flooding the internet
with their particular style of writing. So that's
why. The articles from before that are 100 %
human written. It's a pure sample. It's a pure
sample. It shows you how real people use slang,
how they joke, how they explain things with a
bit of frustration or humor. Those are the human
ingredients you need to find to fix the AI's
text. And you have to layer in your own personal
stories too. Oh, absolutely. Think about another
prompt like writing about putting salt in your
coffee instead of sugar. If you just ask the
AI, it'll probably say something like a common
morning ritual. Ah. You have to forbid that cliché.
Instead, tell it to describe the gritty physical
sensation of that first horrible taste. That's
real. So why is checking old Reddit posts from
that pre -AI slop era so critical? Old posts
capture authentic slang and real humor before
AI homogenized online language. OK, so moving
from theory to actually doing it. Creating a
long 2 ,000 -word article without slop needs
a real system. It's not one click. Let's walk
through the four steps. Right. Step one is create
a human -first outline. This is where I think
most people get it wrong. They ask the AI for
an outline, and it spits out generic headings.
Introduction, challenges, solutions. Yeah, that's
useless. You have to stop asking the AI for a
long article because it will just fill the space
with junk to hit your word count. Instead, you
the chef write down five to ten main questions
you want to answer. And these have to come from
real life, like the guides example, writing about
a homestay business in California. A generic
outline is no good. Your question should be things
like, which area had the worst utility bills?
Or, how did I find that amazing street food cart?
Exactly. Then you move to step two. Use the SlopEvator
tool for research, which is really the pre -AI
check. You're back in the time machine. You use
those date filters on Google, maybe search Stack
Exchange to find pure human information from
before November 2022. And we're looking for texture
here. What kind of high value details? You're
looking for complaints, brand names, little specific
details. If a Reddit post from 2019 mentions
a specific coffee shop in that neighborhood,
that's gold. An AI would never find that, but
it makes your writing feel instantly real. OK,
so step three is command the AI to write in small
bytes. This feels like the most important part
for avoiding that drift. It is. The AI's brain
just works better on one small task at a time.
It has a smaller context window to worry about.
If you ask for 2 ,000 words by word 1000, it's
already forgetting the voice you told it to use
at the start. So we feed it our research, our
notes, and we just ask for part one. Why does
keeping it under, say, 300 words make such a
big difference? It just manages that context
so much better. It forces the AI to be concise
and stick to the rules you set. Your prompt should
say, use I and you, be friendly, avoid words
like tailored, and keep it under 300 words. Then
you immediately review that chunk for any slop
and fix it on the spot. And then finally, step
four, the human polish and bridge building. You've
got all these perfect little sections. Now you
have to glue them together and you have to avoid
the robotic glue. Exactly. You delete those cold
transition words. Moreover, furthermore, and
the absolute worst in conclusion, They just sound
like a machine. Instead, you use human bridges.
Things that sound like you're actually talking
to the reader, but here's the catch. Or, another
thing I noticed was... Yeah, or, so what does
this actually mean for you? Right, and the final
test is to read the whole thing out loud. If
you stumble, if you feel bored reading your own
work, there's still flop in there. Fix it. So
what's the ultimate risk of just asking the AI
for the full 2 ,000 words at once? Asking for
too much length at once makes the AI fill the
space with empty low -value slop. Even with a
perfect workflow, there are still some common
traps people fall into. Things that can make
your writing actually seem unprofessional or
shallow. The first trap is confusing simple with
lazy. Simple writing is about taking a really
hard idea and making it easy to understand. It's
not about deleting the idea itself. Right. You
still have to do deep research. You still need
to read the expert blogs. But you use simple
metaphors to explain the how and the why. So
instead of saying AI optimizes complex workloads,
you say something like, AI is like a very fast
assistant. It handles boring stuff. So you get
two extra hours to grab coffee with friends.
The value is clear. Trap number two is forgetting
to use I and you. Mm -hmm. to that passive language,
right? It is believe that or report show. It
sounds like a dusty old textbook. You have to
be confident. Use I to share your own experience
and you to talk directly to the reader. When
I write about tech, I always say, I tried the
setup and I found that you might see an error
here. Let me show you how to fix it. That makes
the reader feel like you're right there with
them. You know, I still wrestle with prompt drift
myself. Just. Keeping that consistent voice across
a long piece, it's hard. It takes constant work.
And that leads to trap three, being too afraid
of technical words. In some topics, crypto, AI,
engineering, you can't avoid them. So you keep
the technical term, but you define it right away.
Precisely. You keep the term, but you add a simple
explanation immediately after it. For example,
we used a large language model, or LLM, which
is basically a statistical parrot trained on
huge amounts of text. You show you're an expert,
but you don't leave anyone behind. Whoa. Imagine
scaling this kind of deep human analysis across
a huge project like a whole book or a thesis,
injecting that much real -world value into every
single chapter. That's powerful. It's all about
proving your expertise through action. Don't
just say automation saves time, tell the story.
I used to spend two hours cleaning data every
Tuesday. Now I press one button. I use that time
to go for a walk. You have to describe the actual
buttons you click. That proves you know what
you're talking about. And at the end of the day,
that simple, helpful content is what Google wants
to see. People stay on the page longer, and that
helps you rank higher. So for specialized articles,
should I completely remove all technical jargon
to achieve this slop -avator style? Keep necessary
jargon, but immediately follow it with a plain
English definition. Okay, let's summarize the
big ideas for you, the listener, who's ready
to start this journey. I think there are three
main takeaways. First, just keep it simple. That
grade five student rule is your North Star. If
a 10 -year -old can't understand the sentence,
it's too complicated. Delete the scary words.
Second, tell your own stories. The AI has all
the facts, but you're the only one with your
life experiences. The frustration with the utility
bill, the joy of finding a great coffee shop,
those details build trust. And third, follow
the process. Don't ask for 2 ,000 words. Use
the four -step workflow and always remember the
time machine. Ground your writing in real pre
-AI human language. And the final piece of advice
is, don't be afraid to make mistakes. Every time
you find a robotic sentence and fix it, that's
a win. The reader can feel that effort. At the
end of the day, AI is just a tool, a powerful
one, sure. But the heart of the story has to
be yours. Your simple, real voice is your most
valuable asset in a world that is just full of
boring slop. So we encourage you to start your
slop evader journey today, one sentence at a
time. Thank you so much for sharing your sources
and your time with us for this deep dive.