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“I've always liked relatively vague prompts because it forces frontier models to get creative”
What It Means
Less specific AI prompts often produce better results by allowing models to find creative solutions
Why It Matters
Challenges common assumption that more detailed prompts always produce better outputs
When It's True
When AI capabilities exceed user's domain knowledge or when creative solutions are possible
When It's Risky
When precise specifications are required or when creativity could cause errors
How to Apply
Start with high-level goals
Use clarifying questions
Let AI suggest approaches
Iterate from vague to specific
Example Scenario
“Asking AI to 'build a fundraising model' rather than specifying exact financial statement structures”
Related Knowledge
Context is king
The more specific context you provide to AI systems, the better and more customized their outputs will be
a well-defined box produces a more creative result than an empty field
Specific constraints and boundaries lead to more creative and useful outputs than completely open-ended requests.
These are magic words. You might want to screenshot this
Specific prompting phrases like 'think step by step' and 'adopt the persona of an expert' trigger significantly better AI responses.
I dictate everything. Just I get way more detailed prompts this way
Voice dictation enables much richer, more detailed prompts than typing, leading to better AI output