When Two Agents Are Better Than One Big One

specialized agents with narrow tools beat one agent with everything

Some examples

• A planner that writes the spec
• A coder that implements one task
• A reviewer that checks the diff

Try it!

Open your favorite AI tool and try one of the examples above. Pick the one that matches what you are actually working on this week. Spend 10 minutes, no more. Notice what worked and what did not — that's the real lesson.

Practice this safely

Try this with a school, hobby, or family example where the stakes are low. Use the AI output as a draft you can question, not as the final answer.

1. 1Ask AI to explain planner in plain language, then underline anything that sounds uncertain or too broad.
2. 2Give it one detail from "When Two Agents Are Better Than One Big One" and ask for two possible next steps plus one reason each step might be wrong.
3. 3Check worker against a trusted source, teacher, adult, expert, or original document before you use it.