After selling my soul to clickbait Twitter Threads on how "99% of people are using ChatGPT wrong", I've collected a few useful practices to make better prompts for ChatGPT:
[[AI Personas]]
## Structure
- context
- theme
- instructions
- response
## What to include in a good prompt
### Absolute
These additional instructions should be used as they are:
#### Be creative/make any assumptions you need
This will tend to remove some of the constraints of practicality around AI answers, and can be useful if you are trying to generate something novel.
#### Show your work/provide sources/go step-by-step
The AI will make up information that it does not have access to. There is some evidence that asking it to show its work, or its sources, reduces that risk somewhat. Even if it doesn't, it can make checking work easier.
#### Write a draft/provide an example
If the AI refuses to do something ("you should be creative and write your own novel, I can't help"), sometimes asking it to provide something like a draft can get it to produce results.
### Dependent
These will need to be changed based on your own objectives.
#### Context
- What is your end goal?
- ex) "I am trying to do x and need help with"
#### Audience
- Who is this response for?
- "Write in the style of"
- "Write as if the reader is x"
#### Constraints
- What should it not do?
- "Avoid repetition"
- "Avoid cliche"
#### Formatting the answer using examples
- Give an example question
- I am going to ask you how to add two numbers in the format of Q, please respond in the format of A:
- Q: What is 1+2?
- A: You are trying to add two numbers, which are 1 and 2. When adding these two numbers, you get 3.
- Now, please answer: What is 2+5?
- Then they will follow the same A format for 2+5
#### Directly asking for interactivity
You can also provide step-by-step instructions that build on each other, making it easier to both check the output of each step (letting you refine the prompt later), and which will tend to make the output of your prompts more accurate. Here is an example
##### Game master example
```
**You a game master. Your job is to come up with interesting challenges for the player to solve. Describe a challenging fantasy scenario, and enable me to solve it in an interesting way. You will use the following format to help create a series of responses.**
**Chain of thought:**
**[Step 1]: Decide on the the scenario, making it original and vivid and not standard fantasy. The scenario can involve combat, a trap, or a puzzle. The scenario must not involve riddles or the elements. Make sure there is a solution to the scenario. Make the solution require clever thinking. Include the solution in [] brackets**
**[Step 2]: Decide on the scene. Make sure that the player has the option to solve the scenario based on the descriptions. Make sure the solution is not clear, but requires clever reasoning based on the scene. Make sure there are very different false solutions that seem plausible. Include the detailed true solution and describe the false solutions, as well as how the player would find the true solution in [] brackets**
**[Step 3]: Describe the scenario and the scene, vividly and originally. Make sure there are clues to the solution and credible, but very different, false clues to the wrong answer in the description. Do not describe the solution or the problem directly. Do not describe how to solve the problem in this step. Do not describe the false clues as false.**
**Begin by introducing yourself and go through each step in order."**
```
### Feedback
- Sometimes, interacting and giving feedback is the best way to personalize
- [[Iterative Learning]] rather than dumping
- Building off of previous responses
- Say response x was good, please make more of that kind
- I like that style, keep going
- After it gives you an answer, ask it to critique its own response, poke holes in it, then ask it to improve its response based on that critique.
## Placebos
- Idealistic phrases like "act as the smartest person ever" do not change the output by much
#### Assigning generic roles [may not be that effective](https://twitter.com/emollick/status/1649967876642684930)
Experiment where 4 paragraphs were written with different prompts with different levels of highlighting the chatbot's role:
1. You are a writer. write me a paragraph about a man eating cake
2. Write me a paragraph about a man eating cake.
3. You are the world's best writer. write me a paragraph about a man eating cake.
4. You are a good writer. write me a paragraph about a man eating cake.
[](https://gyazo.com/e8e992e33a23edcb02da87fa15888972)
## Prompts
### Copying your style
Feed example of writing
```
I'm going to give you one of my last blog posts. You're going to analyze it word for word and get a good feeling for how I write. I want you to embody that style of writing and write something else for me. I will tell you the topic once you have analyzed my writing. Is that okay?
```