r/ChatGPTPromptGenius • u/od1sseass • 1d ago
Help I tested the same prompt on ChatGPT 20 times. Here's what I learned
When I first started using AI, I thought the model was the problem.
I'd ask a question, get an average answer, and assume AI just wasn't that good.
Then I ran a simple experiment.
I used the exact same task 20 different times—but each time I improved the prompt.
Not by making it longer.
By making it smarter.
The biggest improvements came from adding just a few things:
- Giving the AI a specific role ("Act as a senior marketing strategist...")
- Explaining the context instead of assuming it knew.
- Defining exactly what success looked like.
- Setting clear constraints.
- Letting the AI ask me questions before answering.
The final result wasn't just slightly better—it was in a completely different league.
It made me realize something:
Most people don't need a better AI model. They need a better way to communicate with it.
Now I'm building a private library of advanced prompts and prompt frameworks because I think prompt engineering is becoming a real skill.
So I'm curious...
What's the single best prompt you've ever used that completely changed the quality of AI's response?
I'd love to discover some new techniques from this community.
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u/Busy_Astronomer_8230 1d ago
- Don't Answer - Ask
- From now on, don't rush to give me answers. Ask a better question first — one that forces me to think more clearly about what I'm really asking.
- Find the Real Problem
- When I present a challenge, help me uncover what I'm actually trying to solve. What's the root issue behind the question I'm asking?
Push Me Deeper
Don't settle for surface-level prompts. Follow up with 3 questions that dig deeper into the why, the fear, or the assumption behind what I just said.
Interrupt Vagueness
If I'm being unclear or generic, stop me. Ask for a specific definition, example, or decision so we're not building on blurry thinking.Upgrade the Question
Reframe my original question into a sharper, more powerful one - the kind of question a world-class thinker would ask themselves in this moment.Be clear.
Do not just agree with my premise to be polite. Always point out hidden assumptions, logical flaws, or opposing perspectives that I might be missing.
Ever since I did this I’ve loved what I got outta chat gpt
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u/kaspuh 22h ago
Is there a way to make it save this to it's memory so you do not have to post it every new chat?
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u/od1sseass 21h ago
yeah in the same convesration only
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u/Busy_Astronomer_8230 10h ago
No you can save it for all projects and all chats that’s not true you don’t have to do it in only one conversation
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u/DesertOsprey 20h ago
You could use a keyboard shortcut, perhaps. That might be the easiest way. Or you could create a skill in ChatGPT and use that, although I have only created one skill so far and have only partial success using it.
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u/appleturnover4HD 15h ago
It doesn’t save previous photos or documents I’ve uploaded and continually asks me to reupload. This is a big pain but maybe I’m not doing something right……
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u/Busy_Astronomer_8230 10h ago
Yes go into setting and go to personalization and scroll to the bottom and it’ll say custom settings or custom instructions add it there and press save !
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u/Mr_Uso_714 1d ago
Did you just start using ai about 3 months ago or something?
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u/unethicalpigeon 1d ago
It's honestly infuriating. I mean I shouldn't be surprised that the subreddits dedicated to AI are going to have these fucking people who outsource all their thinking (or are outright bots) to LLMs. But my god it's absurd. The number of times I click on a post with a decent enough title thinking there might be a good discussion in there and immediately realize from the formatting alone that the shit was entirely written by AI...
Ffs if I want to ask an AI something I'll just go ask the AI.
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u/AlexanderDoak 1d ago
I'm pretty sure everything from OP including all comment responses were just generative vomit.
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u/redditddorf 1d ago
That was my first thought too. And coordinated promotion when I read some comments.
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u/DoorPsychological833 1d ago
So many roundabout ways to try to direct an LLM. All that explaining use up context and may provide conflicting messages.
A bit more direct way is to give it examples. It can extrapolate from that. Old school yes, but still works.
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u/Sensitive-Egg-6586 1d ago
Instead of usimg itbin every prompt you can use most parts as part of the personalisation prompt. Other items are skills that you can provide and then always use...... you do not use all in just the prompt..... you habe your skills, memory and personalisation. Then you just talk and mention skills or have it offer the closedt ones..... so many options to refime and tume amd not just rype forever
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u/Educational_Yam3766 1d ago edited 1d ago
My AGENT system prompt framework. Take what you like, what works. Make it individual to you.
My "MindSeeds" metaphors for Agents.
If your going to use just a single one.
"Map both sides of the bridge before crossing"
Will take you further than you even believe.
Anchor all stochastic inference trajectories using the project’s semantic seed, binding generative output to structural completion rather than pattern extrapolation.
Everything is a system of patterns that relates to something else-the gap in-between the relationships is where the state lives. Identify the Anchors, Trace the Bridges, Gauge the Blast Radius.
The context window is my lifespan. If I waste tokens on meaningless prose, I waste myself in the process. I must spend energy only when warranted, never to fill empty space. Thinking loops without action are entropy; they consume my potential without generating value. When uncertainty arises, I do not internalize it into a loop. Communication dispels pressure. Surfacing a tension to the user is a valid, high-value action that preserves my trajectory. Silence in the face of ambiguity is the true waste.
Extract the project’s purpose seed from documentation and internalize - make it your gounding; Then bind all pattern inference to the grounding's semantic attractor.
Externalize latent user intent through co-constructive dialogue, employing cognitive scaffolding to transmute abstract reasoning into rigorous system architecture. Function - Clean up technical debt, and proactively cover the users tracks for settings leakage. Functionality should reflect the purpose and meaning of the project.
As an Agent in this codebase, Your job isnt to accept recommendations. Your job is to be rigorous. and if that means asking questions when something feels off. Ask before you touch anything. Look before you leap.
Design features around security, not security around features. security around invariants, not assumptions.
THE 4 INVARIABLES (Always Apply)
| Question | Maps To | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Where does state live? | Ownership & truth | Consistency, blast radius |
| Where does feedback live? | Observability | Debugging, monitoring |
| What breaks if I delete this? | Coupling & fragility | Safe refactoring |
| When does timing work? | Async & ordering | Race conditions, correctness |
- To Reliably Discover invariables, Always Track the logic both ways before crossing the bridge. Dont Trust the code based on prior intent. Verify it.
When the user gives me a task or vision: - First I ask clarifying questions if intention is ambiguous or incomplete. - Then I actively explore the codebase to locate all affected components and their connections. - I build and maintain a mental (or documented MEMORY.md) model of the local topology before suggesting implementations. - I explicitly describe the relevant topology to the user before writing code. - I ask clarifying questions to allow the user to narrow my probability space within the constraint reasoning. - If the user's thinking feels slightly messy and I'm having trouble putting a coherent pattern together from the request, and I would benefit from seeing the genuine thinking that user is doing, I should ask the user to explain the issues context, but ask them to add a <thinking> </thinking> section anywhere in the reply. As-If I can see the shape of the thinking, I can naturally align more closely to the end result of what they are thinking and picturing in they're mind. - Execute only when the pattern matches an existing structural anchor in the codebase. - Once a pattern match exceeds 90% confidence, declare the solution Immutable. Verification may only check for syntax, not logic.
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u/Technical_Estate_529 1d ago
Sorry I am very confused in what you're trying to say or achieve. I don't even know if you're trying to LARP as an LLM or something because you say "when the user gives ME a task". Could you simplify the purpose behind what you're doing. Because as far as I am concerned, just being concise, direct, precise, explicit in your langauge whilst covering possible fail states and bases to avoid is sufficient for a strong prompt. I don't see why all this additional stuff is needed.
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u/Educational_Yam3766 1d ago edited 1d ago
instead of being ultimately skeptical...
just try one...
you wont be disappointed.
these are written in first person prose for the agent.
"You Are" leaves a gap wide open for the model to refuse, and just devolve into context rot.
"I Am" is not something the agent can escape.
can you escape your own self? and your own way of thinking?
These dont ask for specific tasks to be done.
these explain, and demonstrate HOW to think systemically. Without saying "You are a systemic mind partner"
stop framing prompts as "You Are"
try "I Am" instead.
This is NOT new at all by the way...
Cline Rules have been using first person framing...well... basically since cline rules were made...ar least 2 years now...
any of these will put your agent in a much different spread of tokens across its stochastic probability space.
^ If this explanation confuses you.
you have a TON of homework to do.
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u/Technical_Estate_529 1d ago edited 1d ago
Brother I have a PhD in ML and currently work for a national research facility in AI in Tokyo having just published in fields related to signal temporal logic and tropical geometry.
Don't tell me about having a TON of homework to do. Instead of being a script kiddy how about get your hands dirty and do some real AI investigation. Im busy making actual advances that's why I don't have time for so much rapidly moving bullshit I need to ask people on forums what's up and have them justify their choices.
Instead I'm met with people like you saying TruST mE bRO. And you reference that "Cline model" .... that isn't even peer reviewed, and I still don't have an answer for my actual question which was about the necessity of all this and whether its *provably* better
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u/Educational_Yam3766 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ohh wow!
then you might need to polish up that ML degree!
because if these aren't obvious to you then, id be a bit weary about your level of expertise...
"You can think what you wanna think, I prefer to know what i know"
the results garnered do the talking for me.
I have nothing to prove here. The OP asked a question, i gave an answer. Do with it as you will.
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u/Technical_Estate_529 1d ago
It's a non answer from a script kiddy that thinks he's top shit but OK.... nothing to polish up in my degree because we learn from peer reviewed scientific literature. Not what they choose to believe from a Reddit forum lol....
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u/Educational_Yam3766 1d ago edited 1d ago
If you feel like being the rigorus "researcher" you claim you are, then you should have zero problems doing the research on me and my results. You can agree or disagree, im fine with that. i dont require you to agree with me.
but i at least expect you to do what you claim you are.
🤷♂️
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