Ahoy, fellow prompters! Ever feel like you’re wrestling a kraken just to get your AI to spit out what you actually want? You spend ages crafting that “perfect prompt“, only for the AI to give you something… well, let’s just say less than stellar. I’ve been there, sailed those stormy seas!
Well, hoist the mainsail, because Google just dropped an absolute game-changer: a whopping 68-page guide to prompt engineering! I dove deep into this treasure chest, and let me tell you, it’s packed with awesome insights for everyone, from fresh-faced cabin crew to seasoned prompt captains.
✨ What’s Inside This Treasure Map? ✨
I’ve sifted through the doubloons and picked out some of the shiniest gems for ya:
- 📌 High-Quality Examples are King: Think of it like showing the AI a perfect example of treasure. One-shot or few-shot prompts (giving it a few good examples) teach it your desired format, style, and scope. Pro-tip: Toss in some edge cases, but keep an eye out for overfitting, and be careful not to let the AI get too fixated on your examples!
- 💡 Start Simple, Sail Smooth: Your best mates are concise, clear, verb-driven prompts. Less confusion for the AI means way better booty (outputs)!
- ✅ Be Specific About Your Loot: Don’t just ask for treasure; tell the AI you want “three gold coins in a small velvet pouch.” Clearly state the structure, length, and style you need (e.g., “Return a three-sentence summary in bullet points”).
- 👍 Positive Commands, Not Pirate Bans: “Do this” works much better than “Don’t do that.” Keep those “don’ts” for critical stuff like safety or super strict formats.
- ⚙️ Variables are Your Versatile Crew: Use placeholders for things that change (like names, dates, or amounts). This makes your prompts super reusable! Imagine a template for “Find [amount] of [treasure_type] at [location].”
- ✍️ Mix Up Your Map Styles (Input Formats): Try giving the AI info in tables, bullet lists, or even JSON schemas. Different formats can help the AI focus on what’s important.
- 🧪 Always Be Testing Your Cannons!: This one’s huge, folks! Whenever you switch AI models or a new version drops, re-run your prompts. As we saw with GPT-4.1, new models can act differently to the same old commands!
- 📊 Experiment with Output Formats Too!: Don’t just settle for plain text. Ask for JSON, CSV, or markdown. Structured outputs are way easier to use with other tools and cut down on cleanup later.
- 🤝 Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Share your prompt discoveries and strategies with your crew. Collaborating makes the whole prompt engineering voyage smoother and more successful.
- 🧠 Chain-of-Thought (CoT) Wisdom: When you’re asking the AI to “think step by step,” keep those initial CoT prompts simple. And hey, don’t use CoT when you’re already prompting a model designed for reasoning, as it’s like telling a navigator how to read a map they designed!
- 📜 Log Your Voyages (Document Iterations): Keep a captain’s log of your prompt versions, how you set them up, and how well they performed. This is crucial for tracking progress and not repeating mistakes.
Phew! That’s a boatload of awesome, right? Google really laid out a fantastic roadmap here. This summary just scratches the surface of their incredible guide.
Ready to dig deeper and become a true prompt engineering master? 🏴☠️ You absolutely have to check out the full discussion and find links to the guide itself in the original Reddit post for all the glorious details!
Google dropped a 68-page prompt engineering guide, here’s what’s most interesting
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