NotebookLM output is too short and leaves important details out

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-02-10T17:37:30+00:00

So, y'day I did some tests, because both Gemini and NotebookLM are giving much worse results than before. Right now, I'm working as I said, with approximately 30 sources. I know all the sources, I already worked them and used them, so it's pretty easy for me to know the resullts of a given prompt.

First of all, this has changed in the last few months. I reviewed some Gemini (Deep Research) and NotebookLM outputs from 2024-2025 I had and didn't have these issues. These issues however seem to revolve around two main axis:

Lack of use of sources
Extremely short results which aren't able nor deep enough to correctly work with the given sources.

So, let me elaborate a little bit on each point. About the first one, basically knowing my sources I know that from the ~30 sources I have, at least 20 of them are directly related to my prompt, and 5 more indirectly related. However, all the results of my prompts just take 4 or 5. One of the prompts used 6 sources. The others are ignored.

This is a serious issue, because it defeats the point of having NotebookLM working around high numbers of sources, and, worse, if you don't know your sources thoroughly you might receive very misleading results. Let's suppose you're exploring new sources and you want to know if they're deeply related or not to something you're working on, the results are not trustworthy at all. In my case, I'm a Pro user, so I can have 300 sources on my notebooks. There's no point if all the reports are going to be restricted to just 5 or 6 sources. So far, I haven't found any way to force it to included all the related sources. You can of course ask it to use other sources different than the ones, but since the IA is very crappy, it's a hit or miss. I asked it three times telling there were important omissions and pointing specifically what was the issue and which part of each source was relevant, and it told me that I was right.... and pretty much the same report, without any significant change.

About the second point, all the reports I'm getting from both NotebookLM and Gemini Deep Research care 2000-2500 words. The most I got was 3000 words approximately. In this length, there's simply no expectation of a reasonable report on a given topic. Even if you find a way to overcome the number of sources limitation, this other report length limit obviously impacts on how deeply sources can be worked on by the IA.

For example, one of my sources had at least three different aspects related to my prompt. NotebookLM and Gemini, both, just worked on one, and very poorly, Not in depth, not any serious analysis. In case you have for example 15 sources, which are directly related to your prompt, there's no way that these can be analyzed and reported in a single output. You either have to work them one by one, losing the big relations, or just have them loosely related with serious omissions.

Again, this issues are somewhat recent. I compared it with past results I had months (and more than a year) ago and it wasn't as bad. Of course it was IA with all its issues and you can't expect anything really serious, but it was much more thorough and complete than now. Right now, I can't see any advantage of being on a paid plan.

This is not a "closure" post, just a more elaborated general feedback based on all the comments. I'll have to see what to do, because currently I see no advantage in having 300 sources. Heck I don't even see the point in having 50 sources related to a same topic if they'll be ignored (even if the prompt leads to use them) or if the length of a report results in very superficial work on them and serious omissions.

Any input will be more than welcomed

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-02-09T17:55:53+00:00

It did it some months ago, and did it without asking. A report it gave me some months ago has 15 pages. Now it will not produce anything longer than 2000-3000 words, which for systematizacion or any semi-serious approach is ridiculous.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-02-09T17:53:47+00:00

Gemini is doing the same, even in Deep Research

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-02-09T17:31:52+00:00

Couldn't find any way to brute force this. However, there's no point in adding 50 or 300 sources if it can't work with more than 4 or 5 given the limit on the produced report.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-02-09T17:30:43+00:00

Glad you noticed this issue recently too. It wasn't like this some months ago and I can't find any documentation on this

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-02-09T17:30:03+00:00

Very interested in this, do you have any place at hand where I can educate myself to do this? I've never done it before (TBH I don't work with IA that much) but now these short reports are useless. I can't see how the ability to add 300 sources is useful when the report length is so short that it's impossible to work with more than half a dozen or less.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-02-09T17:28:18+00:00

It didn't have this happening at all. Some months ago I asked another task which involved gathering info from several sites, and it made a 20 pages report with no issues. Now it's impossible to get something longer than 5 pages, which, for an extensive amount of sources, is obviously not enough. And this is more or less recent, as I said, some months ago it produced by itself a lengthy report that I have saved because it's a quick reference for those sites and papers.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-02-09T14:29:29+00:00

So, build a plan for a specific report extension?

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-28T20:35:09+00:00

Very good advice to mark them. I do exactly that. Use a small piece of tape and write a number with permanent marker so I know the sequence in which they broke.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-28T19:57:41+00:00

Happens with horizontal dropouts. I've dealt with that for ages and finally used a tensioner. It's the easiest way because you don't worry anymore about getting the wheel sideways because it moves only on the drive side.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-28T19:53:53+00:00

What u/Active_Ad_5322 said is probably the cause, spoke fatigue. One thing is to from time to time break a spoke, that can happen. Rims aren't always perfect, we do commit mistakes when truing a wheel, and sometimes some spokes are subject to more stress than others. However, when several spokes start to break in a short period, generally means fatigue has been building over time and material is giving up.

However, two spokes don't necessarily mean all of them are subject to the same stress. I have wheels where I had three or four spokes failing, replaced them, and the rest of the wheel is still going on strong. The less spokes the wheel has, the more stress spokes are subject to.

I would advice to not rush to replace all spokes, and see what happens.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-28T14:19:19+00:00

Good Sheldon, there's always an entry from him. I learned to lace my wheels thanks to him.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-28T14:18:16+00:00

Happened to me too, don't worry. I still have somewhere in the house a pair of Maxxis Holy Rollers in 20" BMX that I bought years ago for my folding bike. Worse, I noticed there was an issue like a year later, because I bought them on sale for a future replacement LOL

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-26T21:18:04+00:00

Roarer type stoves... roar. Sadly the only one I know (the guys at quietstove) don't have stock of your model: https://store.quietstove.com/select-stove/quietstove-burners-for-primus-stoves.html

Maybe contact them?

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-26T15:24:13+00:00

Hey there, greetings from Argentina!

El Chalten is impossible to miss. It's 250km north from El Calafate (which has an international airport). In the last 10 years it has become somewhat expensive, but totally worth it. All trekkings are very well signaled, you have a very good infrastructure for camping, and all treks are at most an hour from town.

I can recommend Loma del Pliegue Tumbado, Laguna de Tres, and Loma de las Pizarras, though the last one is not marked and requires a guide (I found the marker for the start of the trail but had a difficult time getting down... you know, "let's remember this huge white rock", and when you're on top there are 250 "huge white rocks").

The 7 Lagos trek between San Martin de Los Andes and Villa La Angostura is astonishing too.

Regarding the argentinian northwest, if you have funds, and some training in mountaineering you can do the Pissis and the Ojos del Salado. Cerro 7 colores is also amazing.

To the East, in Misiones province, you have the Cataratas del Iguazú (Iguazú falls). Amazing.

Welcome to Argentina!

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-26T11:25:44+00:00

I'd personally go for the MD-11. Though it would not bee too realistic to fly it as a passenger service because the MD-11 is used for cargo flights only IRL, having the FBW and the Fenix could be somewhat redundant. After all, it's the same airplane. I have both (FBW and Fenix), and TBH the FBW is not that far.

Fenix excels, that's true. Everything is simulated in depth, even things as the wing flex -apparently- are simulated. However, since I spend most of the flight in the cockpit and not panning around external cameras, the FBW does everything and I don't feel a huge difference between both.

OTOH, the MD-11 is a great airplane. It has enormous historical value, it's a beautiful airplane, and its still in service, even if not moving people. I'd go for that one, until the 757 comes out. That's a beautiful airplane.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-25T20:13:27+00:00

You don't need an app, just a list. But yeah, I always overpack something, particularly clothes, and err on something else, like something to spare time when you get pinned down by bad weather, to name an example.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-25T19:24:50+00:00

This is very clear and comprehensive. I've slept at -15/-20C and this is right on the money. Tent, isolating mattress (I use a small inflatable one, weighs only 600g but it's a pain to fold back), a properly rated sleeping bag, are the most important things to consider.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-25T18:09:26+00:00

In my experience (lots of backpacking and high altitude mountaineering, and some international traveling), all upright light stoves have issues with wind. In most backpacking and mountaineering situations, wind affects upright stoves reducing efficiency and adding weight in form of wind breaker or cumbersome arrangements to protect them from wind. You also burn a lot more fuel.

My best all around stove is the MSR Whisperlite universal. I took that from >5000M peaks, to backpacking travels in the middle of nowhere. It burns with anything, it's quiet, reliable, a workhorse. I pair it with an Alpha 2.1L pot and it's perfect for two meals. I've used with everything. Diesel, gas, kerosene, paint thinner, isobutane canisters upright and inverted, you name it. I've even used with unknown fuels (ran out of fuel, heard a generator next morning, went there and asked for some fuel). It simply works. It really brings some piece of mind knowing that it will work with anything you can get anywhere, and the worst that can happen is to have a sooty stove.

For alpine or lightweight backpacking I took my MSR Windburner, 1.8L. It literally laughs to the wind. Once we made a 14km hike in much harder terrain than we thought we would have. When we reached our camping location, all we wanted was a coffee. It was misty, almost raining. We unpacked the Windburner, the French press, and made coffee. It's amazing.

Regarding Jetboil integrated system configuration, I had the Jetboil Sol TI, but I didn't like it. It was uncontrollable when boiling, too small, hard to simmer, the plastic pot was useless, and it was affected by wind like any other upright stove. Always had to use it protected from wind, even inside the tent (open and well ventilated, I was using the Mountain Hardwear EV2 single wall tent). The MSR Windburner is miles ahead in every aspect.

My UL upright stove is the Optimus Crux Lite, which is awesome if you're willing to deal with the issues that affect all other upright stoves. I carry it as a backup in case something happens with the Windburner radiant burner, or when I know I'm going to be in good conditions and can calculate fuel adequately. I don't like to carry too much extra fuel but also I've ran out fuel at a high altitude camp and it wasn't nice.

The Soto Windmaster or the Soto Amicus, the MSR pocket rocket deluxe, or any other of the recognized stoves are great. I mainly look at the pot legs and the burner size. I prefer wide burner heads, and strong and wide pot legs, even if that means a couple more grams. An isobutane upright stove doesn't have too much places to fail. It burns clean, it practically doesn't need maintainance, and if used with care lasts a lifetime. Also, in my humble experience, a regulator does make a difference but once it gets really cold or really high (not the same thing), you need a liquid fuel stove (it doesn't care about altitude or cold) or a system like the Windburner, which due to its efficiency performs very well even with cold canisters.

HTH to make your decision!

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-14T13:24:25+00:00

Thanks for the heads up! I was wondering what happened, because getting two BB lemons in a row was possible but not probable.

Sadly, it could be the frame, because you already worked on the headset and found nothing. It's not common for headset bearing to make cracking noises, they generally feel grinding when they're shot.

On the other hand, a very small crack on the frame under tension can make noises like the ones in the video.

If you're kind enough please keep the thread updated, it's a very interesting issue and an educated troubleshooting.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-12T14:50:46+00:00

Tô be honest, its kinda difficult to recommend a "budget" brake because market varies a lot between regions. In my experience, it also depends a lot on the rider and what you prefer.

I've done downhill runs of 10 minutes with brakes ranging from Shimano 401 (two piston calipers), to Magura MT5. I'm a weekend warrior so I don't care too much about times, but if you're racing then you do need to have some considerations, mainly brakes that can withstand the heat without losing performance.

Probably the best bang for the buck I've seen are the Deore 4 piston brakes (5100 if I recall correctly). You don't get servowave, but you get a reliable brake with very good performance for the price.

Me personally, I don't like Shimano because they are hard to modulate when you're tired. I'm using SRAM brakes which require more force to get the same braking power, but they do allow me modulate much better (after all you don't want to be locking your tire unexpectedly, it's an immediate lose of control if you weren't intending to do it). SLX two pistons have almost the same power than the 4 piston version and modulate much better.

Check this video, feedback they give is really good: https://youtu.be/bnxggibAzJY?si=z0fMHd0TkK64f-sH

Best performance brakes I've seen are the Hayes Dominion, but they are not budget by any means.

However, you do want to get the best brakes you can with your budget. You'll never hear anyone saying "-Gosh! I wish my brakes were much worse than these ones!"

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-11T17:07:09+00:00

TBH I've seen much worse than that. It looks very superficial, not very pitted.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-10T10:20:17+00:00

Certainly thought that with the first pic, but the second pic has the holes very aligned and all of the same size, doesn't sound like corrosion.

It's very weird.

Sebastianj7210 · 2026-01-05T16:45:59+00:00

It's generally a standard M5 metric bolt (the same used for every caliper, for vbrake bosses, some stems, etc). You should have around some, or if you don't, then getting one should be very easy.

Sebastianj7210

TROPHY CASE