---
title: Slop Avoidance Patterns
impact: HIGH
impactDescription: "Verbose or generic terminal output wastes screen time and makes demo videos unwatchable"
tags: demo, quality, conciseness, terminal-output
category: quality
description: Rules for eliminating verbose, generic, or redundant text in demo videos.
---

# Slop Avoidance Patterns

Demo videos have limited screen time. Every line of terminal text must earn its place.

## Common Slop to Eliminate

| Slop Pattern | Example | Fix |
|-------------|---------|-----|
| Verbose phase names | "Divergent Exploration" | "Ideas" or "Generating 12 ideas" |
| Redundant sub-descriptions | Phase title + description | Combine into single line |
| Repetitive completions | "✓ Task #2 completed: patterns analyzed" | "✓ #2 patterns" |
| Generic transitions | "Now let's see..." | Cut directly |
| Empty lines for spacing | Multiple blank lines | CSS padding instead |

## Text Density Rules

**Incorrect:**
```
Phase 1: Topic Analysis
   └─ Keywords: real-time, notifications
✓ Task #2 completed: patterns analyzed
Now let's move on to the next step...
```

**Correct:**
```
Analyzing topic → 3 patterns found
✓ #2 patterns
```

## Timing Compression

```
15-SECOND VIDEO BREAKDOWN
=========================
0-7s:   Terminal demo (action-packed)
7-11s:  Result visualization (payoff)
11-15s: CTA (install command + stats)

Rule: If content doesn't earn its screen time, cut it.
```

## Hook Styles

Choose one per video:

- **Question**: "Tired of [pain point]?"
- **Statistic**: "[X]% of developers miss this"
- **Contrarian**: "Stop [common practice]"
- **Transformation**: "From [bad] to [good] in [time]"
