Mine Your Taste: What Your AI Rejections Reveal

Companion Prompt Kit — "Your Most Valuable AI Skill Is Saying No"

Your taste is already in your conversation history. Every time you told an AI "that's not quite right," "make it less X," "don't do that," or rewrote its output entirely — you were encoding a preference. You just never captured it.

These five prompts surface those patterns, name them, and turn them into reusable constraints you actually own.

Works with any AI. No special setup required. If your AI can search past conversations, these prompts will trigger that. If not, they'll guide you through reflection instead — the output is the same either way.

Prompt 1: Open the Audit

Use this to start the conversation. The AI will ask you about your work context before doing anything else.

I want to identify my taste — the standards and preferences I hold that most people never articulate. To do that, I need to surface what I've rejected or corrected in AI output over time.

Before we start, ask me:

What kind of work do I primarily use AI for? (writing, coding, strategy, communication, research — or a mix)
Are there one or two domains where I use AI most heavily?
Do I have a rough sense of anything I correct AI on repeatedly, even if I can't name why?

Ask me these questions and wait for my answers before doing anything else.

Prompt 2: Mine the History

Run this after Prompt 1. If your AI can search conversation history, this will trigger it. If not, it will guide you through a structured recall instead.

Now let's find the actual rejection moments. I want you to do two things:

First, check whether you have the ability to search my conversation history or memory. If you do, search for moments where I: corrected your output, said something like "not quite," "too X," "less Y," rewrote something you gave me, or asked you to redo something. Look across all topics and time periods. List what you find — the specific corrections, not just summaries.

If you can't access my conversation history, tell me explicitly — something like "I don't have access to your past conversations, so let's do this through reflection instead." Then ask me: In the last few weeks, what's one thing an AI gave you that you changed or rejected? Walk me through what was wrong with it and what you changed it to.

If you did find history results, still ask me the reflection question too — there may be patterns you missed.

Gather both sources before moving on.

Prompt 3: Find the Pattern

Run this after you've surfaced 5–10 rejection moments from Prompt 2.

Now look across everything we've surfaced. I want you to identify the underlying standards — not just the individual corrections, but what they have in common.

For each pattern you see, give me:

A short name for the preference (3–6 words)
What I reject (the failure mode)
What I actually want (the positive version)
One example from what we found

Try to find at least 3 patterns, no more than 8. These should feel like they describe me specifically — not generic AI advice. If something shows up once and seems like a one-off, leave it out. If something shows up in multiple corrections across different topics, that's a real preference.

Show me the patterns and ask if any feel off or missing before we move on.

Prompt 4: Write the Constraints

Run this after you've confirmed the patterns in Prompt 3.

Now encode each pattern as a reusable constraint — something I could paste into a system prompt, share with a teammate, or add to a personal preferences file.

For each one, write it in this format:

[Preference Name] Domain: [what kind of work this applies to] Reject: [what to avoid — specific and observable] Want: [what to do instead — specific and observable] Type: [one of: domain rule / quality standard / business logic / formatting]

Make the "Reject" and "Want" fields concrete enough that a different AI — one that has never talked to me — would know exactly what to do. No vague adjectives. If you have to use a word like "clear" or "concise," follow it with an example of what clear or concise looks like for me specifically.

Prompt 5: Build the Taste Profile

Run this last. This creates a portable document you can use anywhere.

Now pull everything together into a single taste profile — a document I can save, paste into system prompts, or share with anyone who needs to work in my voice or to my standards.

Format it as:

[My Name]'s Taste Profile Last updated: [today's date]

Context: [2–3 sentences on my work and where I use AI most]

Core Preferences (one section per constraint from Prompt 4)

How to Use This A 3–4 sentence note on how someone (or an AI) should apply this profile — when to invoke it, what it covers, what it doesn't.

After you write it, ask me: Is there anything here that feels wrong? Anything important that's missing? I want this to feel like it actually describes me, not a generic version of someone who uses AI.

These prompts are companions to "Your Most Valuable AI Skill Is Saying No" by Nate B. Jones. Read the full article →