Getting started

Getting started

Your Prompt Isn't Working: A 5-Question Diagnosis

Generic, off-target, too long, or wrong answers: five questions to ask yourself, in order, to find what's wrong with your prompt.

3 min read

Getting started

15 Everyday Prompts to Try Tonight

Meals, mail, quotes, appointments, studying: fifteen short prompts to copy as they are, with the brackets to fill in and the vigilance to keep.

4 min read

Getting started

When it's better not to use AI

A costly mistake, a two-minute task, an intimate message, confidential data: six situations where AI wastes your time or exposes you to risk.

4 min read

Getting started

English or Your Own Language: Which to Write Your Prompts In

The tools understand most languages, but some cases justify English. When to switch, how to ask for a translated answer, and the test to run.

3 min read

Getting started

Dialing In the Tone of an Answer Without Spending an Hour

Describing a tone with adjectives doesn't work. Three quick methods: situate the reader, show a model, move the slider one notch at a time.

3 min read

Getting started

The follow-ups that turn an average answer around

Eight ready-to-paste follow-ups to improve a lukewarm AI answer: remove the generic, compare versions, get a critique, cut, verify.

4 min read

Getting started

Test a Prompt Before You Rely on It: A Simple Method

Tricky cases, written criteria, repeated runs: how to check in half an hour that a prompt holds up before using it for real.

5 min read