Horthy: Beginners should compact LLM context at 40% of window capacity
Dex Horthy · Why Your AI Agents Don’t Work with Dex Horthy of HumanLayer | In-Context Cooking · Mar 6, 2026 · at 16:16
Dex Horthy, founder and CEO of HumanLayer, explains his rule of thumb regarding the 'dumb zone' when filling LLM context windows.
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“If you don't know what you're doing, and you don't really know what the AI model is capable of, and you don't have a lot of experience, like, you know, training wheels is like, when you get to 40%, start thinking about wrapping it up, or like doing a, like, you know, intentional steered compaction to where you want to be”
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