I've always been a huge nerd. Like you:)
I would sit in front of the computer and play video games all the time. It was a way to escape reality for me. I was also really good at it. Or at least I thought so.
I remember when UT2004 came out, everyone went nuts. I was 13. Looking back it does draw a smile on my face but the onslaught mode was revolutionary at the time.
I would play all the time, although my mom always took issue with me "killing people even if they were made out of "pretzels" (pixels)"
I was unstoppable with a flak cannon.
So once school ended early in the summer we organized a 24 hour LAN party with a few boys from school. We all packed our stuff into an old house owned by one of the boy's family and we were eating junk food all night, it was fun on the outside.
But it was torture for me.
There were 6 of us in the room and someone asked: "Hey, what should we play first?"
With unwavering confidence in my voice I said "I'd love to play UT2004 if you're ready for some ass whooping".
What came after was probably one of the most humiliating experiences a kid can go through socially. You see I only THOUGHT I was good, because I never met with pros before.
I kid you not, I couldn't even leave base at one point. The first 3 hours of the LAN party was basically me eating a humble pie. I made the mistake of thinking that just because I play a lot with it and I have my ways of doing things, I must also be very skilled.
But I wasn't skilled. I wasn't even a mediocre gamer. I was straight out a classic noob. You see, that night I learned that I'm actually pretty bad at shooter games. I don't have a knack for it, never really had. It was hard that night, but I'm okay with it now.
A similar thing happens when people start using ChatGPT. They watch Youtube videos, figure out a few things themselves and they start developing habits around using AI. This might be true for you too.
If yes, I have bad news: 9/10 times this means you only got to taste the tip of the iceberg. Just a quick lick of the top bit.
If you don't use ChatGPT with a structured, proven approach, you won't save your time. You will save SOME time. But that'll be eaten up by you spending all that saved time talking to a chatbot on a website.
Since you're reading this you're probably already using ChatGPT very often. And you're probably annoyed at how inconsistent it is in giving you responses. You are creating some content with it, but it's not very good.
That's because you're basically trying to push buttons randomly in the cockpit hoping the airplane won't crash into the ground. This is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. When it comes to new skills, we're all a bit predisposed to sit with 13 year old me on the Child's Hill.
You're probably not hearing about this for the first time. But I'm probably also the first one to point out that the Dunning-Kruger Effect is not just about false confidence. You see it's the same effect that causes that lingering feeling that tells you how you're not getting the benefits of AI that was promised. That fear of inadequacy that if left untreated will grow into full blown monster mix of impostor syndrome, FOMO and despair.
You know, that voice inside your head that keeps telling you that there's so much more you could do with ChatGPT and AI and that you really should figure out how so you could finally delegate work to AI instead of chatting with this stupid machine all the time.
Today I'll give you a template that uses the 6 key elements of a prompt. Depending your current position on this graph, you'll either get more confused, make you unsubscribe or give you a bit of clarity.
Nevertheless, I'm hoping to push you a bit towards the right side of this graph today.
This is one of the first lessons in the 78 (!) lesson long Prompt Master AI Course we're starting to release THIS WEEK. Replace the placeholders with your text to get better responses:
CONTEXT/PERSONA
Act as a [job title]. You report to me, who is the [job title of your boss]. My main objective right now is to [a job that needs to get done]. So I'm giving you a task to help me with that. Don't forget that at our company, we always must employ the following tone of voice in our communications: [criteria for tone of voice]
TASK
Your task is to [activity or task that if done, the outcome will help you do your job].
WHAT IS CONSIDERED GOOD
I will accept your work if it's [success criteria separated by commas, give pointers on how does success look like].
STEPS TOWARDS THE GOAL
I want you to follow these instructions in order to do this task well: [micromanage step by step instructions].
LIMITATIONS
You are not allowed to use the following words: [any words that are prohibited plus also prohibit: unleash, unlock, transform, enhance, it's about, all about, game]. Before you start carrying out your task, ask me clarifying questions so I can see you care about doing a good job.
I never really became a skilled UT2004 player, because I could afford not to.
(but seriously, go buy our course. I'm so confident that it'll change your life that you can ask for a refund until September.)
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