ten-by-ten

# 10x10 — breadth then judgment The fastest way to get a great result out of an AI that is not 100% reliable. Instead of fighting one mediocre output with round after round of corrections ("add this word, move that line") — which is slow because each round costs a full generation — you **generate breadth, let a human pick, then converge.** Human judgment is fast and high-value; spend the model on options, not on arguing. Apply it by default whenever output quality matters and one shot is unlikely to land it. ## Sandbox first — never touch the real thing until the pick is made **The variations are always generated in an isolated sandbox, never by mutating the real target.** Copy the relevant slice into a throwaway space (a `sandbox/` dir, `/tmp`, scratch files), generate all N options there, render/present them, and let the human choose. **Only after a winner is picked do you apply that one change to the real data** — the live deck, file, DB, document, etc. The real artifact is never in a half-edited state, and nothing is lost if a direction is rejected. This is non-negotiable: breadth is exploratory, so it stays quarantined until judgment lands. ## The loop **1. Diverge — 10 genuinely different directions.** Generate **10 variations that differ in direction, not in trivial tweaks.** Crucially: *you* (the agent) propose the directions — don't ask the user to specify them. Breadth is the point. Keep each lightweight so all 10 are cheap to scan. > "Give me 10 ads in different directions that all carry the campaign's message — you throw > the directions." **2. Select — human picks the winner (fast), via the grid picker.** Present all N together for a quick side-by-side scan. **The default selection UI is the interactive grid picker** bundled with this skill — offer it immediately and **launch it without waiting to be asked**; it raises a local server and opens the UI in the browser for you: 1. Build a **sandbox sheet** — one HTML doc with the N options as a grid of `.wrap` > `.cell` elements (in order = option 1..N). For visuals, render each option faithfully; for text, a labeled card is enough. 2. **Launch the picker** — run it as a normal terminal command: `npx tsx <skill-dir>/scripts/pick-server.ts <sheet.html>` It **opens the browser automatically** and prints `PICKER_READY <url>`. If port 8777 is busy it **auto-picks the next free port** and reports it — always use the URL it prints, never assume 8777. (`<skill-dir>` = where this skill is installed. Needs Node + `npx`; `tsx` runs the TypeScript directly — no Python.) 3. In the browser: **click = primary pick** (exactly one, solid cyan), **Shift+click = secondary picks** (many, dashed amber — these go to the keep bank), then **"Confirm"**. 4. **How the choice comes back to you — read this, it's the part agents miss.** The command **stays running** the whole time the human is picking. The moment they click **Confirm**, the server **shuts itself down and the process exits on its own**, and its **final stdout line is the answer**: `PICK_RESULT {"primary": N, "secondaries": [...]}` That line *is* the selection — read it straight from the command's own output. (It's also written to `<sheet dir>/pick-result.json`, which you can `cat` as a fallback.) **Do not ask the user what they picked — you already have it from PICK_RESULT.** - **Codex / a terminal that blocks until exit:** just run the command and wait; when it returns, read the `PICK_RESULT` line it printed. That's the whole round-trip. - **Claude Code:** run it in the background; you're notified when it exits, then read its stdout (or `pick-result.json`). No manual polling. 5. Apply the **primary** to the real data; route the **secondaries** to the keep bank (3b). Human judgment here takes seconds — that's the whole efficiency gain. (Falling back to "just tell me the number" is fine if the browser isn't available.) **3. Converge — 10 from the chosen one.** Generate **10 variations of the selected direction** to refine within the winner. Optionally narrow further (10 → pick → 4 → 3 → 2 → 1). Each round tightens around what already works. **3b. Keep bank — never let breadth evaporate.** Breadth surfaces gems that aren't the winner but are worth keeping for *something else* — a different slide, a poster, a campaign, a name, a future idea. The throwaway sandbox is deleted; a **keep bank is permanent.** Before discarding the sandbox, move the interesting-but-rejected directions into a persistent keep bank, each captured with: a snapshot/snippet, **one line of "what's good here," and a tag for where it might fit.** Store it inside the project so it accumulates and stays searchable; promote cross-project gems to a shared/global bank. Good work compounds instead of resetting to zero. Offer this proactively whenever a 10x10 round produces more than one strong direction. **4. Lock it — make the winner deterministic.** Re-generation drifts: ask for "the same poster with a different number" and the model quietly changes other things. When you need the exact same result every time, **convert the winner to code** — HTML→PDF, SVG, or a small script with the variable parts as parameters. Now it's pixel-exact and reproducible, not re-rolled each time. ## Why it works - **No correction hell.** Round-after-round on one output is slow and frustrating; breadth + selection reaches "great" far faster. - **Human judgment, applied fast.** People are excellent at *picking* and slow at *specifying*. 10x10 leans on the fast skill (choosing) and offloads the slow one (articulating) to breadth. - **It compensates for imperfection.** The AI isn't 100%. Generating 10 and selecting turns an unreliable single shot into a reliable pick. ## How to run it well - **Make the 10 actually diverse.** If they look like 10 copies with one word changed, you failed step 1. Push for different angles, tones, structures, layouts, mechanisms. - **Present for fast comparison.** Visuals → render all 10 and show them in one grid/contact sheet (or send as a batch). Text → a compact numbered list. Don't dribble them out one at a time. - **Default count is 10**, but scale to the task — 5 for a quick call, 10 standard, more when the space is wide. Say what you did. - **Then converge, don't restart.** Round 2 is variations *of the winner*, not a fresh 10 from scratch. - **Reach for determinism at the end**, once the direction is locked and exactness matters. ## Beyond design 10x10 is not just for posters. Use it for naming, headlines, copy, email drafts, strategy options, architectural approaches, prompts, schemas — anywhere the solution space is wide and a single attempt is a coin flip. Diverge → select → converge → (lock).