Transcript (edited) from today:
“Welcome to Day Two!
Today, we're going to talk about my favorite method to get better answers from ChatGPT. 💡
🤔 Why ChatGPT Sometimes Misses the Mark
A very common complaint about ChatGPT is that it doesn’t quite answer things the way you really want it to.
The reason? It’s like I said yesterday—ChatGPT acts like an eager student. So when you say something like (and I’d like you to type this in)
“Go fetch the news.”
…it happily runs off and brings back a random assortment of articles. Usually, they’ll look like CNN-style headlines, because it’s making a bunch of assumptions about the kind of news you want. 📜
But it doesn’t know that maybe you’re really into Philly sports 🦅 or hyper-local updates from your town.
🛠️ The Conventional Advice (That I Don’t Love)
Most AI experts will tell you to solve this by spending time writing very specific prompts, like:
“Give me today’s news, focusing on Philadelphia sports, political updates related to zoning reform, and anything about biotech IPOs.”
Sure, that works OK. But it’s also like a couples therapist telling you to “just communicate your needs better.” 🙄
💥 My Hack: Let the AI Ask You
Instead, here’s what I recommend:
At the end of your prompt, add this phrase:
“Before proceeding, ask me three clarifying questions.”
Try the news question again - but adding this phrase. That’s it. Simple, powerful, game-changing. 🎯
💬 Why It Works
ChatGPT is amazing at asking questions—and it knows exactly what it needs to give you a better answer.
And here’s the cool part: you're not being graded.
If you skip the first question, vaguely answer the second, and give a semi-thoughtful reply to the third? Answer a question that wasn’t asked? That’s still way better 🍞.
⚡ My Power Move
I use this so often that I’ve created a keyboard shortcut:
/Q3
That automatically adds this phrase to nearly every prompt I write.
🚀 Try It Out
Let me know what you think. 🙌
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