Make AI Prompting Your Super Power! Part One

AI is an incredibly useful tool. I'm here to make it easy for you.

I have over a decade of experience working in the tech industry; big tech, little tech, mid stage startups and across all types of teams: leadership, engineering, marketing, sales, etc. I’m here to connect my experience with tech-as-an-ally to help you build your new AI prompting super power.

But first, what is AI prompting? Essentialy, ‘I am asking AI a question.’

And the dense definition: AI prompting refers to the process of crafting specific instructions or questions to guide an AI system in generating desired responses. Effective prompts can improve the quality and relevance of the AI’s output by providing clear context and specific details.¹

Are you a student working on a paper? Are you building a company? Are you a curious human, like me? Once you’ve decided on your top priority for using AI, then you can choose one best suited to your needs. Below is a table that breaks down some of the most popular AI platforms.²

I started with ChatGPT. It’s very user friendly and versatile across topics. I now use the latest ChatGPT model via DuckAI due to better privacy.³

You can access any of these AI’s by typing their name into your internet search engine. EG - ‘ChatGPT AI’. And finding your way to the prompt window. You may be required to create an account. My prompt window looks like this:

AI are logic machines and need context in order to provide you with information that is most effective for you. You first have to be clear on your goals:

Is this a one-off question?

Is this a long topic?

Is this a deep topic?

One-Offs: ‘Is tomato a FODMAP?’ There’s no harm in asking AI a simple question. I do it all the time because I like the efficiency as opposed to a regular internet search where I have to go hunting by clicking into articles and scrolling. The answer is at my fingertips.

I can even ask a bunch of unrelated questions in the same window. I’m a curious person and do this often. My next questions might be: ‘How many types of zebra are there?’ ‘What’s the difference between a moth and a butterfly?’ ‘Convert 3 pounds to ounces.’ Simple questions [prompts] such as these require no context for AI to give you adequate information.

The real power of AI shines in long conversations and deep topics:

Long Conversations: This is something you know isn’t going to be a one off question and you know you’ll have follow up questions. For me, these conversations can last days, weeks, months.⁴ For example, I use AI for dream interpretation⁵ and it’s actually quite good. When I have a dream, I write it down and then copy/paste it into the AI prompt window and it will provide me a detailed interpretation. EG - “Interpret the following dream for me: [insert dream]”

But the real power comes when you ground the long topic into a broader context, and this I am going to refer to as deep topics.

Deep Topics: Let’s say I’ve been working with my therapist on childhood traumas, but I’ve gotten to a point where I need to take a break and integrate my learnings. Let’s say that from my therapist, I’ve learned that dreams can help me understand what’s going on with my nervous system and how to meet my own needs. Because I am taking a break from therapy, my therapist is not longer available to interpret my dreams for me, so I want to use AI. But I don’t want generic dream intrepretation EG - losing teeth dreams indicate a stressful life situation. I want an in-depth analysis of the dream and how it applies to my healing process.

When you have the AI prompt window open, know there is no character limit. AI doesn’t care if you punctuate well or use complete sentences. Do a data dump of everything that’s related to your goals. In this case, I would talk about working with my therapist and my trauma themes. This is building the context for AI. Remember, the more information the better.

Next you must tell AI what you want it to do for you. It is important to be specific in what you want. In the same prompt window I would tell AI: “ Link my dream intrepretation to what I have been working on with my therapist. Help me understand my nervous system and any actionable steps. Please list any additional items or concerns I should take into consideration.”

I am going to create a course where we look at AI prompting in real time. Click here to add your email to the wait list.

1. Credits: Wikipedia & Atlassian

2. Want me to write about how to query the internet for more information on different AI platforms? Let me know in the comments.

3. Digital security and privacy is very important to me. “Chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other 3rd-party AI models for free with Duck.ai. No account needed!” Let me know in the comments if you want me to write about this.

4. Different AI’s have different technical limitations. EG, DuckAI has a conversational limit, so it’s important to know how to transfer conversations in a meaningful way so as not to lose continuity. Let me know in the comments if you want me to write about this.

5. AI is not good for all topics. EG, it will not give you accurate readings in astrology unless you are able to query it in a very specific way. Let me know in the comments if you want me to write about this.