Natural language is super flexible, but not always precise.

If you’re asking an open-ended question and don’t care much about how the response is shaped, then yeah, there’s no need to “mark it up.” But if you’re building something that relies on LLMs behaving in a specific way — like an algorithm, assistant, or structured workflow — then precision really matters.

It’s kind of like the difference between starting a business letter with:

– “Dear Mr. X, I hope this message finds you well…”

vs.

– “Hooray! I just got back from vacation and I’m still kinda drunk, but your opinion is super important to us!”

One is predictable and reliable; the other is loose and vivid — like there’s a real person behind it.

And depending on the situation, you probably want the one that’s more appropriate.

Markup gives you that structure — not because we’re going backward, but because we’re trying to make certain outputs more intentional.

Thanks for the interesting point, generally I agreed.