The Magic of Repeated ‘Improve It’ Prompts

What if you keep ask an LLM Improve the code - dramatically!?

We used the new GPT 4.1 Nano, a fast, cheap, and capable model, to write code for simple tasks like Draw a circle.

The we fed the output back and asked again, Improve the code - dramatically!

Here are the results.

• Draw a circle rose from a fixed circle to a full tool: drag it around, tweak its size and hue, and hit “Reset” to start fresh.
• Animate shapes and patterns turned simple circles and squares into a swarm of colored polygons that spin, pulse, and link up by distance.
• Draw a fully functional analog clock grew from a bare face to one that builds all 60 tick marks in code—no manual copy‑paste needed.
• Create an interactive particle simulation went from plain white dots on black to hundreds of bright, color‑shifting balls that bounce, die, and come back to life.
• Generate a fractal changed from a single Mandelbrot image to an explorer you can zoom, drag, and reset with sliders and the mouse wheel.
• Generate a dashboard jumped from static charts to a live page with smooth card animations, modern fonts, and a real‑time stats box.

A few observations.

Models are getting much more reliable. Even a low cost model like GPT 4.1 Nano wrote error-free code in ~100 retries.

When pushed, they tend to brag. They attach grand titles like Ultimate Interactive Circle or Galactic Data Universe. They sin out flash descriptions like This dramatically upgraded clock features a pulsating neon glow, animated pulsing background glow, highly stylized tick marks, …

A simple prompt like Improve it can spark new ideas, revealing features such as:

• Fading particle trails
• Smooth fractal color maps
• Chart.js for dashboards
• Cyberpunk-style clocks
• … and a “smorgasbord of intricate animated patterns”