The prompts I use most

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When people picture a good prompt, they imagine something long and detailed. A wall of instructions. A perfectly engineered paragraph.

The prompts I actually reach for most are the opposite. Some of them are two words long. They work because they change how AI responds, not because they're complicated.

Here are the six I use almost every day.

That's the whole prompt. Two words.

When AI gives me an answer that feels even slightly off, I ask this before doing anything else. Half the time it doubles down and I trust it more. The other half it says "actually, let me reconsider" and corrects itself. Either way, I learn something.

It's the simplest fact-check there is, and almost nobody uses it.

Most people tell AI what they want and take whatever comes back. This flips it. Instead of answering, AI starts asking you questions, and those questions pull ideas out of you that you didn't know you had.

I use this whenever I'm stuck at a blank page. The conversation that follows is almost always better than anything I would have gotten from a single request.

This one is about stepping back before diving in. When I'm about to make a decision or start something new, I describe it and let AI poke at it before I commit.

It turns AI into a thinking partner instead of an order-taker. You'd be surprised how often it catches something you would have run straight past.

This is my favourite prompt for blind spots. You can only ask about what you already know to consider. This prompt surfaces the things you didn't know to think about.

I use it before meetings, before big decisions, and any time I have that nagging feeling I'm missing something.

AI is trained to be agreeable. Left alone, it will tell you your idea is great and your writing is strong. This prompt overrides that and asks for honest resistance.

A related move worth knowing: you can ask AI to "steelman" or "devil's advocate" a position. Steelman means make the strongest possible case FOR something, even if you disagree with it. Devil's advocate means argue the strongest case AGAINST. Asking for both on the same idea is one of the best ways to stress-test your thinking before you act.

I ask this about my own work constantly. AI defaults to encouragement, which feels nice but isn't always useful. This prompt gives it permission to be honest.

The answers are occasionally humbling. They're also the reason the work gets better.

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The prompts you use are one of the clearest signals of where you are on the AI skill curve. Beginners write long, complicated prompts. People further along use simple ones with intention.

I built a free 5-minute quiz that tells you your exact level, what's working, and the one move that would push you to the next one. Seven questions, no email required, instant result.

People keep replying with "this is uncomfortably accurate," which is exactly what I was going for.

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Stay curious, stick with it, and watch your skills grow week by week!

Until next time :)

— David

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