Why You Shouldn't Use Ready-Made Prompts with ChatGPT

And what to use instead if you're new to AI.

credit: Midjourney

Ready-made prompts are for people who don’t know what they’re doing. 

The problem? 

All outputs are mediocre. 

The lowest low of the quality there is!

Why?

Because if you want to produce high-quality AI content, prompting is not enough. You need to train the AI. 

Ok, how do you do that?

Two ways:

• You either need to have a very long conversation and then use this conversation for all future tasks (which might be the case for Google Gemini), or 

• You create a custom GPT with ChatGPT, where you input all needed instructions once and then use it every day across many chats.

For both, you need to understand how prompt engineering works. Applying ready-made prompt templates will not help you. 

You need to understand how prompting works. If you don’t understand prompt engineering, don’t touch AIs. I speak from experience here. 

I’ve invested two years of my life to focus on that, I even started learning Python programming to make sure I have the whole picture.

I’m a nerd.

You don’t have to be.

My superpower is to translate complex things into simple words. You don’t need to go that deep into prompt engineering. 

All you need is this.

There is one fundamental rule for promoting AI: 

You have to prompt ChatGPT (and any AI) as specifically as possible.

But how the heck do you do that, when we (humans) are so biased and assume all the time. It gets messier when emotions jump in. 

How do I know all that? I work with people in my 9–5. My job is to understand them. Because it’s so hard, I’ve mastered NLP (neuro- linguistic programming), coaching, mentoring, leadership of all types, and you name what to help me survive this nightmare. 

Let me show you an example: when I say “a phone”, what do you think about? Is it a smartphone? Most probably yes, right? Maybe an iPhone or a Samsung? A black one? 

Why? Because those are the most common phones right now. 

The truth is, you’re guessing! 

Because I might be 80 years old so I might mean an old-school landline phone looking like this:

source: Midjourney

Wait, I have another example: Think about what comes to your mind when I say each one of those things:

• ways to connect 

• means of communication 

• telecommunication device 

• a phone 

• a dark phone 

• a dark smartphone 

• a dark iPhone

• a space grey iPhone 15

• a space grey iPhone 15 Pro Max, 256 GB

Notice something? 

I gradually changed the level of specificity from vague and general to narrow leaving no room for interpretation.

It’s on purpose, to illustrate this: We (humans) are talking on the higher level. Because it’s easier. It takes an effort to go specific. Usually, we get angry when other people don’t understand before we realize the problem is with our communication. 

Good that we have the body language to help us understand how the other person feels about what they say. 

Well, guess what: AI doesn’t have a body language. And it can’t read yours (yet). It only has your words, which are vague. 

With a ready-made prompt, you say “means of communication” and expect the AI to understand “a space grey iPhone 15 Pro Max, 256 GB”. 

It can’t happen! 

So how do you deal with that problem when it comes to prompting?

I will give you two rules to remember:

SHOW, DON’T TELL!

I’ll say that again: SHOW, DON’T TELL!

Repeat after me: 

SHOW, DON’T TELL! 

SHOW, DON’T TELL! 

SHOW, DON’T TELL!

Give as many examples as possible.

That’s the secret sauce to prompting!

Another not-so-popular rule is to cut complex tasks into smaller tasks.

CUT THE SALAMI INTO PIECES!

Provide simple instructions one after another. Don’t give everything in just one prompt. Craete a conversation.

Talk to it as you talk to a 6th grader.

Show how you expect it to handle each step of the way. Imagine you’re training a new employee. Or you’re teaching your child to solve math problems. It’s the same! 

So that’s why you shouldn’t use ready-made prompts, and this is all you need to know instead: 

• SHOW, DON’T TELL! 

• CUT THE SALAMI INTO PIECES!

Simple, right?

Thanks for being with me today!