Ask HN: What AI prompts have you found most reliable for actual work?
3•HrachShah•42m ago
Comments
ultrablue•37m ago
I've been telling Gemini to limit it's response to a certain amount of words, typically in 25 word increments. When I just want it to agree with me, I add "25 words." to the end of the prompt. When I want it to give me a rough answer, 50 - 75 words. For a more robust response, 100 - 200 words. This has made my experience much, much better.
HrachShah•17m ago
That is a great pattern. Word count constraints force the model to prioritize instead of padding. I use a similar idea but in the other direction -- asking for the single most important thing rather than a list, so the model has to commit to one answer rather than hedge across five.
kspetkov79•34m ago
The useful prompts are usually boring. Give context, say what you want, say what to avoid, and set the tone. Without that it often gets too polished.
ultrablue•37m ago
HrachShah•17m ago