Attention Is All You Need (To Understand Prompts)
Definition: A neural network mechanism indicating the importance of particular words or parts, compressing information needed to predict next tokens in transformers.
The Breakthrough
Before “Attention,” AI read sentences left-to-right and often forgot the beginning by the time it reached the end. Attention allows the model to look at every word at once and decide which ones are related.
- In the sentence “The bank of the river,” the model pays attention to “river” to know that “bank” means “land,” not “money.”
Hacking Attention in Vibe Coding
You can manipulate the AI’s attention mechanism to get better code.
- Recency Bias: Models pay more attention to the end of the prompt. Put your most critical instruction (e.g., “Do not use markdown”) at the very bottom.
- Needle in a Haystack: If you paste 50 files, the “attention” gets diluted. The model might miss the one line in
config.tsthat matters.- Tip: Only paste the relevant snippets. Focus the attention.
“Lost in the Middle”
Research shows models often ignore instructions buried in the middle of a long prompt.
- Strategy: Structure your prompt like a sandwich.
- Top: “Role: Senior Dev. Goal: Fix bug.” (Context)
- Middle: The code snippets. (Data)
- Bottom: “Specific Instruction: Return only the JSON.” (Command)
Expert Takeaway
You are the director of the AI’s attention. If the AI is ignoring a rule, it’s likely because your prompt structure distracted it. Simplify and refocus.