Have you ever typed a question into an AI tool,
hoping for something brilliant, only to get back
a response that felt, well, a bit dull, maybe
generic? It's a common frustration. And if you
felt it, you are definitely not alone. Welcome
to the deep dive. Today, yeah, we're really going
to unpack why those AI conversations so often
fall flat. This deep dive into mastering AI,
prompt engineering for better results, is basically
going to show us that the AI itself, it usually
isn't the problem. It's almost entirely about
how we ask. So we'll tackle the five biggest
mistakes most people make, then we'll reveal
five... really game -changing techniques to get
exactly what you want from AI. We'll even dive
into some real -world examples, see how they
work, and learn how to kind of course correct
when a prompt goes wrong. You should think of
AI as an incredibly smart assistant, yeah, but
one that needs truly clear, structured guidance
from you. It's an interesting dance, isn't it?
We sort of expect magic from tools like ChatGPT,
and then when we get something unhelpful, it's
easy to blame the tool. But the core insight,
I think, what truly resonates here is that AI
isn't a mind reader. It just can't be. It creates
based on patterns on these vast amounts of data
it's been trained on. It doesn't... Intuit your
unexpressed thoughts. Exactly. If you throw a
vague request its way, you're almost guaranteed
to get a vague answer back. It's kind of garbage
in, garbage out. But when you switch to clear,
detailed, and really structured instructions,
that's when the surprising, sometimes even brilliant
results start to emerge. So this whole deep dive
is designed as your shortcut, really, to mastering
that fundamental communication. So, okay, given
that... How do we begin to bridge that gap? How
can we make sure AI truly understands our complex
human thoughts or intentions? I think it really
comes down to being incredibly deliberate. We
need to give it structured, detailed instructions.
Treat it like a smart, but very literal assistant.
Okay, right. Let's unpack this further then.
Before we even get to the cool techniques, the
powerful stuff, we need to talk about five things
most people are doing wrong. These are the most
common errors that just, well, tank your AI results.
Okay, mistake number one. writing vague or just
very short prompts. This is like going to a top
chef, handing them maybe two random ingredients
and expecting a gourmet meal. It just won't happen.
The AI simply has too little to work with. So
it leads to outputs that are often random or
just... Not helpful at all. Right a classic bad
example would be just typing write some advertising
slogans. What do you get? You'll often get cliches
like connecting passions or maybe innovation
for tomorrow, you know stuff you could find anywhere
totally generic But consider the difference with
a good example something like write five slogans
for tin to brew coffee Okay, good start. Target
25 to 35 year old office workers. Focus on flavor
and concentration. Use a modern short tone. See
the detail. Then you get something like tinty
brew, rich coffee, bright ideas. Ooh, nice. Or
maybe fuel your focus. Tinty brew. Much, much
better, right? So the fix is basically always,
always add details. Think about the industry,
your target audience, the purpose of the output,
any length limits, and what you want the final
look and feel to be. Mistake number two. And
this is a big one for many of us, myself included
sometimes, treating AI like a Google search engine.
We're just so deeply conditioned by years of
using search. But AI doesn't search the web in
real time like Google does. It's a generative
tool. It creates based on its training data.
So the fundamental shift in thinking is it's
a creation machine. Not a search machine. That's
such a crucial distinction. So if you ask famous
tourist spots in Delat, yeah, you'll get a boring
bulleted list. It's like reading a textbook entry.
There's no smark, no depth. Exactly. But what
if instead you say act as a local expert on Delat?
OK, setting a role, write a three day, two night
travel plan for a couple, mixing famous spots
with less known coffee shops. Getting specific.
Focus on romantic, non crowded activities presented
in a table. Now, that gives a direction. What
you get back is an entirely different experience.
Well, that's beautiful. Yeah. The result is a
detailed personal itinerary. Suddenly, you're
getting suggestions like, sunrise, drive up Langvang
Mountain, maybe, or a quiet dinner at a nearby
bistro overlooking the city. See, it feels curated.
So the fix is, ask the AI to create a specific
product, an article, a plan, a piece of code,
and, critically, give it a roll. and tell it
how to present that information. OK, mistake
number three, adding too much fluff and unnecessary
politeness. This one surprises a lot of people,
but it's surprisingly common. We find ourselves
saying please and thank you so much. We're just
polite people. But the AI, well, it doesn't have
feelings. And these extra words can actually
clutter your instructions, making them less clear,
maybe even less efficient. Totally. You're wasting
valuable prompt real estate. A bad example. Hello,
could you please do me a favor? If you can, please
summarize this article for me. Thank you very
much. Right. The AI will still summarize. Of
course it will, but you've added this inefficient
layer of communication. A good example is simply,
summarize the following article into three main
bullet points. Each bullet point, no more than
20 words. Clear, concise, direct. Exactly. The
fix. Be direct. AI thrives on clear, unambiguous
commands. Get straight to the point. Mistake
number four. Trying to do absolutely everything
in one giant prompt. This is a trap I still wrestle
with myself sometimes, I have to admit. It's
like trying to solve a huge complex puzzle all
in one go. The AI often gets confused, it might
miss important details, or the output just drifts.
I still find myself getting prompt drift when
I try to cram too much in. Yeah, you're basically
trying to give it a whole novel to write. Like,
asking for, um... A complete marketing plan for
a new sunscreen, including competitor analysis,
social media, paid ads, email scripts, and influencer
ideas. Oh, that's not just a lot. It's an entire
project. It rarely works well in a single shot.
The fix here is pretty straightforward. Break
down complex tasks into small, step -by -step
prompts. And finally, mistake number five. Accepting
the very first answer you get, I'd argue this
might be the biggest missed opportunity of all.
So many people treat that initial response as
final, even if it's not quite right. They just
walk away, completely missing the real power
of AI, which is iteration. Exactly. The true
power of AI lies in its ability to iterate and
improve based on your feedback. Think of that
first answer as a first draft, nothing more.
Your job, then, is to be its editor. Give it
direction. So you provide feedback. You might
say, make the tone funnier, or maybe add three
specific actionable examples. The AI isn't just
a generator. It's a highly capable editor, too,
if you guide it. OK, so if we pull back for a
second, it sounds like AI isn't just a fact finder,
definitely not a mind reader, or some kind of
one -shot genie, right? No, definitely not a
genie. That's a good way to put it. It's fundamentally
a creation tool. And what I'm learning, what
we're seeing, is it needs that precise. iterative
guidance from us. It's almost like we're constantly
refining its understanding, step by step, rather
than just hitting a button and expecting perfect
magic. Okay, now that we've cleared those common
hurdles, those mistakes, let's really dive into
the techniques that will truly elevate you, turn
you from an average user into a skilled AI collaborator.
Alright, technique number one, first principles
thinking. Now, this isn't about just copying
prompts you find online somewhere, no. This is
about building your own perfect prompt from scratch.
Think of it as stripping away all the assumptions
to get to the fundamental building blocks of
what you truly need. It's a concept borrowed
from physics, actually. You break down your request
into its absolute atoms. It requires a moment
of deep reflection first, doesn't it? Yeah. You
have to really ask yourself, What exactly do
I want the AI to produce? Who is the audience
for this? What's the desired format? What background
information does the AI absolutely need to know
to succeed? And crucially, what are the specific
constraints or boundaries? Right. So for a job
description, don't just type write a job description.
That's way too vague. Apply first principles.
You build one specifically for, say, a content
marketing specialist at an ed tech company requiring
SEO expertise, maybe targeting university students.
in a very specific, maybe encouraging tone. That's
first principles thinking in action. Technique
number two, the five boxes method. This is such
a simple yet incredibly powerful framework. It
really works. You just fill in these five elements,
role, task, context, constraints, and output
format. Get these five things down and your prompt
becomes nearly perfect almost instantly. It brings
so much clarity. Let's run a quick example, make
it concrete. Imagine you're an experienced hiring
manager. OK, that's your role. Your task is to
draft an email to reject a candidate named John
Smith. The context is important. John has good
skills, but maybe lacks practical experience
for this role. And you want to stay in touch
for future possibilities, constraints. It needs
to be short, professional, but also empathetic.
You don't want to burn bridges. And the output
format. Clearly structured with maybe a greeting,
the result, brief feedback, and then well wishes.
Boom, five boxes filled. Technique number three,
prompt chaining. Okay, for truly complex projects,
this is your secret weapon. Think of it like
stacking Lego blocks of data or information.
You use multiple smaller focused prompts, with
each one building directly on the information
and the output from the prompt just before it.
Yeah, this really helps the AI maintain focus
and depth on each individual step. It prevents
that drift we talked about. So imagine planning
a five -day solo trip to Hanoi. Your first prompt
might be, give me 10 must -do activities in Hanoi
for a solo traveler. Then your second prompt,
building on that, OK, create a detailed five
-day schedule based on those activities, grouping
them geographically. Third, now suggest some
specific street foods to try near the locations
for each day. getting tasty fourth generate a
practical packing list for hanoi in say october
and maybe finally fifth Write a short, inspiring
paragraph to get me excited about my trip based
on this itinerary. See how that step -by -step
chained approach yields far richer, more detailed,
and ultimately much more useful results? It's
so much better than one huge overwhelming request.
Okay, technique number four, meta -prompting.
Now here's where it gets really interesting and
feels a little bit like Inception, maybe? This
technique uses the AI itself as your prompt writing
coach. It's almost like having a prompt architect
right there in your chat window helping you build
the prompt. Yes. Metaprompting means you literally
ask the AI to help you create the best possible
prompt for your task. You might ask it something
like, what information do you need from me to
help me create an effective learning plan to
reach a specific language proficiency goal, say
a C1 level in English, within the next six months?
The AI will then likely ask you clarifying questions,
like about your current level, how much time
you can study, what your weaknesses are, stuff
like that. Once you've answered its questions,
you then ask it to draft the optimal prompt for
you to use. It's a fantastic way to ensure clarity
and completeness. And that leads perfectly into
technique number five, intelligent workflow.
This is where you combine these powerful tools.
You use meta prompting first to get an overall
strategic roadmap, that big picture. And then
you use prompt chaining to execute each individual
step of that roadmap methodically. Right. So
you could start with a broad meta prompt like.
Act as a strategic marketing expert. Outline
a comprehensive roadmap for launching a new online
course covering everything from initial messaging
to post -launch content strategy. The AI will
then give you, probably, a numbered list of strategic
steps, like a project plan. And then you execute
each step with specific chained prompts. So you'd
say, OK, let's start with step one. Identifying
the target audience. Help me create three detailed
potential customer personas for this course,
including their primary pain points and aspirations.
And you work through the list. Whoa. OK, just
imagine scaling this kind of intelligent workflow
for something huge, like a massive content strategy
for an entire global organization. The implications
here are enormous. The possibilities are truly
huge. So to kind of synthesize these techniques,
They're fundamentally about breaking down complexity,
right? And engaging in a much deeper collaboration
with the AI, wouldn't you say? Absolutely. It
shifts the entire dynamic. You move from simply
commanding a tool to strategizing with an intelligent
partner. And interestingly, that often forces
us to clarify our own thinking in the process,
doesn't it? You can't be vague with your partner.
OK, let's see. These powerful techniques really
shine now with two practical examples, things
you can try, like right now. First example, drafting
a LinkedIn post for personal branding. We'll
use the five boxes method here. The bad way,
as we know, is just write a LinkedIn post about
continuous learning. What you get is probably
generic, maybe cliche. Forgettable. The good
way meticulously uses the five boxes. So, your
role. Maybe you're a career development expert.
Your task. Create a LinkedIn post about the importance
of learning a new skill each quarter. The context.
Share your personal story about, say, learning
data analysis recently. Make it real. Constraints.
Maintain a positive, encouraging tone. Include
maybe two, three relevant emojis. Ask an open
-ended question at the end for engagement. And
use three to four relevant hashtags. Format.
Structure it with a clear hook, your story, and
a compelling conclusion or call to action. And
the result isn't just a post anymore. It's an
authentic, valuable, and genuinely engaging piece
of personal branding content. It connects. Okay.
Second example, creating ideas for a short video
series on TikTok. And this time we'll use prompt
chaining the bad way. Just TikTok video ideas
for a cooking channel. Super general, super vague.
You'll get obvious stuff. Right. The good way
starts with prompt one. Okay. I run a TikTok
channel targeting busy people, think students,
young professionals. Give me five main concepts
for video series. The AI might respond with interesting
ideas like maybe upgrade your instant noodles.
Okay. That has potential. Then, prompt 2, you
chain it. OK, I love the upgrade your instant
noodles concept. Develop this into five specific
video script ideas. Give me the dish name, any
special ingredients needed, and a surprising
twist for each one. And maybe finally, prompt
3. Let's choose the soy -marinated egg ramen
idea. Write a detailed 60 -second script for
that video, including suggested visuals, audio
cues, and duration notes for each segment. See,
this isn't just about brainstorming ideas anymore.
This transforms those vague concepts into a detailed,
almost production -ready content plan. It's a
massive leap forward in utility. These examples
really hammer home how structure makes all the
difference, doesn't it? It takes those abstract
ideas and makes them tangible, actionable. It
absolutely does. Structure really is the bridge.
It transforms those vague intentions into actionable,
high -quality content that actually serve your
purpose. Now look, even with all these amazing
techniques, sometimes things still don't work
out perfectly. It happens. Don't panic. Here's
how to troubleshoot your prompts when they go
a little off -kilter. Step one. Just reread exactly
what you wrote. This might sound obvious, but
honestly, it's incredibly crucial. Look carefully
for missing details. Any vague words like it,
or they, or even simple typos. Often, a tiny
wording change can fix a surprising amount. Step
two. Adjust your constraints or the requested
format. If the outfit is way too long or too
short, or the tone is wrong, maybe too formal,
too casual, just tell it. You can simply say,
rewrite the answer above, but limit it to five
sentences. Or maybe, could you adjust the tone
to be funny and sarcastic? Step three. Provide
an example. This is a really powerful technique
called few -shot prompting. It's called FewShot
because you're giving the AI just a few examples,
maybe even one, of the desired output format.
You're teaching it on the fly. So if the AI isn't
quite following the structure you want, show
it. Give it an example, like, please list the
ideas as bullet points using the following structure.
Idea, name, name, short description, one sentence
description, target audience, who it's for. And
step four. Sometimes you just need to try a different
AI model, seriously. Different AI models like
ChachiPT, Gemini, Claude, they all have different
strengths, different knowledge cutoffs, sometimes
even subtly different personalities. So copy
the exact same prompt you're using into another
model. You might be genuinely surprised by the
difference in the results. So when we're troubleshooting,
it often seems like it's more about refining
our own communication, our own instructions,
rather than the AI fundamentally failing, right?
Precisely. It really boils down to becoming a
better, more thoughtful editor of your own instructions.
That iterative process, that refinement, that's
where the magic really happens. For those of
you who want to level up even further, really
become power users. These advanced tips build
on everything we've covered and can truly transform
your workflow. First up, the quick prompt outline
method. This is a great habit. Before writing
any prompt, just take 15 seconds. Seriously,
that's it. Quickly answer these four questions
in your head. One, what's the final result I'm
actually looking for? Two, who's the audience
for this? Three, what's the specific format and
tone needed? And four, what's the absolutely
essential context the AI needs to know? Building
this simple habit will help you create high quality
prompts much, much faster and with far greater
consistency. It's a small mental investment with
really huge returns down the line. Next, really
cultivate the iteration mindset. We touched on
this, but it's key. Remember, Even the experts
rarely get absolutely perfect results in the
very first try. It just doesn't happen often.
So always, always treat that first response you
get as nothing more than a draft. a starting
point. Then iterate. Give a clear, specific feedback.
Make this section more specific by adding relevant
statistics. Or could you adjust the tone here
to be more friendly and welcoming for beginners?
Maybe add a paragraph that addresses potential
common objections. Keep refining. Keep pushing
the AI for better, more nuanced output. And finally,
a really practical tip. Build your own prompt
library. Seriously, do this. When you craft good,
effective prompts that really work well for a
task you do often, save them. Doesn't matter
where Notion, Evernote, Google Keep, a simple
text file, just create a repository for your
successful prompts. Yeah, build templates for
your common tasks. Maybe writing certain types
of emails, generating content ideas, problem
solving frameworks, planning outlines. This simple
act of saving and reusing successful prompts
will save you an incredible amount of time and
mental effort in the long run. It's compound
efficiency. So these advanced tips, they're really
about building good habits, right? And establishing
systems for getting consistent, high -quality
results more easily. Yes, exactly. They empower
you to work smarter, not just harder, and more
efficiently, and ultimately with greater impact
when you're collaborating with AI tools. Mid
-roll sponsor read. Today's deep dive really
underscores something important. Mastering AI.
It isn't about some secret technical wizardry
or knowing complex algorithms. It's fundamentally
about clear, effective communication. It's about
how we interact with the tool. Yeah, we've gone
from dissecting those five critical mistakes
that just waste your time and energy to arming
you with some really powerful techniques. The
five boxes method for that essential structure,
prompt chaining for breaking down those big complex
projects, meta prompting for when you need an
AI -powered coach to help you craft the prompt
itself, and the intelligent workflow for tackling
your most challenging multi -step tasks in a
strategic way. Ultimately, what we're seeing
is that AI rewards clear thinking and better
questions, not just sheer effort or banging your
head against the wall. The more specific, the
more structured your prompts are, the more amazing
and tailored your results will inevitably become.
So where do you start with all this? We challenge
you. Pick just one technique from this deep dive,
just one to begin with right now. Pick a task
you do pretty regularly. Maybe it's drafting
a certain kind of email, writing a social media
post, or outlining a simple plan. And try applying
the five boxes method to it next time. I think
you will be genuinely amazed at how much better,
how much more aligned with your actual needs
your AI outputs become almost immediately. The
key, as always, is to start simple, get a win,
and then steadily build those skills over time.
The future really does belong to people who can
communicate effectively with AI. It's becoming
a fundamental skill. And with these kinds of
techniques in your toolkit, you're not just using
technology, you are truly starting to master
it. So here's something to ponder as we wrap
up. How could applying even a single one of these
techniques transform just one of your daily tasks,
making it not just faster perhaps, but genuinely
better, more impactful? That's it for this deep
dive. Thanks so much for joining us today. Until
next time.