When prompting, especially with voice, use emotional and ambitious language. Pushing the AI to make something "brilliantly serendipitous" can elicit more creative responses, particularly from advanced models. This human-like interaction can improve output quality.

AI models are designed to give a complete-sounding answer quickly. To get to a truly great answer, you must challenge their output. Ask "Are you sure this is the best way?" or "What am I not seeing?" to force the AI to perform a deeper, second-level analysis.

Before delegating a complex task, use a simple prompt to have a context-aware system generate a more detailed and effective prompt. This "prompt-for-a-prompt" workflow adds necessary detail and structure, significantly improving the agent's success rate and saving rework.

Instead of spending time trying to craft the perfect prompt from scratch, provide a basic one and then ask the AI a simple follow-up: "What do you need from me to improve this prompt?" The AI will then list the specific context and details it requires, turning prompt engineering into a simple Q&A session.

When an AI model initially claims it cannot perform a task, it may not be a true capability limit. Simply insisting with prompts like "just do it though" or "try harder" can sometimes brute-force the model past its own hesitancy and successfully complete the request.

Instead of immediately asking an AI to perform a complex task, first prompt it to create a functional spec or a sequential plan. Go back and forth to align on this plan before instructing it to execute, which significantly improves the final output's quality and relevance.

Getting a useful result from AI is a dialogue, not a single command. An initial prompt often yields an unusable output. Success requires analyzing the failure and providing a more specific, refined prompt, much like giving an employee clearer instructions to get the desired outcome.

The best prompts strike a balance between providing enough specific information (e.g., "include code excerpts") and not over-constraining the model. Adding a phrase like "whatever is needed to give me maximum context" gives the AI an "out" to use its own judgment and provide additional, helpful information you didn't ask for.

Instead of telling an AI what to do, reverse the prompt. Describe your role, daily friction, and pain points, then ask the AI to devise solutions. This leverages the AI's creativity to generate novel approaches you might not have considered.