Thinking in Libraries: Why Humans (and AI) Solve Hard Problems by Rewriting the Search Space
Templates are usually sold as a convenience feature. Save time. Avoid repetition. Make the next task faster. That is not wrong. It is just a little shallow, which is how many productivity slogans prefer to travel. A better way to think about a template, helper function, saved workflow, reusable prompt, or internal operating procedure is this: it changes the search space. It does not merely shorten the final sequence of actions. It changes what counts as an available move. ...