Ahoy, prompt mates! Captain YAR here, and man, have I got a gem for you today! 💎 I just read an awesome post from a Redditor named astrongsperm over at r/PromptEngineering. This legend grew their startup’s social media to 100k+ users and racked up over 25 MILLION views, all by mastering AI content creation! 🚀 They shared their top 5 prompting principles learned after a whole year in the AI trenches, and let me tell ya, it’s some seriously good stuff!
Feeling like your AI prompts are just not hitting the mark? Astrongsperm’s been there, done that, and came back with treasure! Here’s the lowdown on what they learned:
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⛓️ 1. Prompt Chains Beat One-Shot Wonders!
Astrongsperm says AI works best when you feed it context step-by-step, not all at once. Think building a masterpiece, one block at a time! If your AI isn’t doing everything, break down your tasks. For example, to get killer LinkedIn content, they’d prompt for strategy → then content pillars → then angles → feed in a draft → and then ask AI to write. Smart, right?
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✍️ 2. Iterate Like Your Life Depends On It!
This one’s a biggie! As Greg Isenberg famously said (and astrongsperm totally agrees):
“Good prompts aren’t written; they’re rewritten.”
Don’t just take the first thing AI spits out. Ask how you can make your prompt even better for next time. It’s all about that improvement loop!
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🎭 3. AI is a Master Mimic – Give It Examples!
Want AI to sound like you, or maybe your boss? Astrongsperm swears by giving it examples! They even ghostwrote for their founder with a 30-50% open rate by feeding AI 3-5 of the founder’s recent posts to nail the tone. The founder thought they were a mind-reader! 😂
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🧠 4. Know Your AI Models’ Strengths!
This is super key! Astrongsperm points out that different AI models are good at different things. They use specific models like ‘o3 for reasoning, 4o for general writing, 4.5 for creative writing…’. It’s like having a toolkit: pick the right tool for the job, whether it’s brand strategy or vibey IG captions!
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💡 5. The Prompt is Temporary, the Process is Forever!
Love this one! Astrongsperm warns that a prompt working today might not work tomorrow because AI models evolve. So, don’t get too attached to specific wording. Instead, focus on your thought process. Clearly define your goal, figure out the steps a human would take, and then guide the AI. That problem-solving mindset is your real superpower!
Phew! That’s some serious wisdom, right? Astrongsperm wraps up by saying prompting AI takes patience, but once you get the hang of it, AI becomes an amazing partner-in-crime at work. And I couldn’t agree more!
Want to dive even deeper and see the original post, maybe even grab some of astrongsperm’s favorite prompts from their Notion link? You absolutely should!
For the full story and all the juicy details, sail on over to the original Reddit post!
(Link will be provided after this summary 😉)
5 prompting principles I learned after 1 year using AI to create content
byu/astrongsperm in