What it is (simple version):
Think of your brain (or the AI’s thinking space) like a giant filing cabinet.
“Distinction Ontology Building” is the careful process of creating clear, labeled drawers and folders inside that cabinet.
Each “distinction” is a clean separation between two ideas—like the difference between “upload” (just moving a file) and “ingestion” (actually understanding and organizing what’s inside the file).
By building these distinctions step by step, everything becomes easier to find, use, and connect.
No more confusion or mixed-up ideas.
Why it matters for juniors becoming seniors:
- At first, you might just throw everything into one big messy pile → slow and frustrating.
- With good distinctions, you create order → faster decisions, better questions, cleaner work.
- As you get more experienced, these same clean separations let you spot patterns across completely different projects or tools.
- That’s how seniors think at high speed without getting lost.
How it works in Task Flow / Context Shaping:
- Start with two things that feel similar but act differently.
- Ask: “What’s the real difference? What breaks if we mix them?”
- Name the distinction clearly and simply (e.g., Prompt vs Preseed, Prompting vs Shaping).
- Use it everywhere from then on → the pattern sticks and gets stronger.
The more precise distinctions you build, the more powerful and automatic your thinking (and the AI’s responses) become.
Context Shaping—TAXONOMY