Lesson 997 of 1455
Prompt Iteration: Send, Check, Refine
Start with a quick prompt, inspect the answer, then refine with specific feedback instead of restarting.
Builders · Prompting · ~24 min read
The big idea
Newbies spend 20 minutes writing the perfect prompt. Pros write a 10-second prompt, see what comes back, and refine. The model is fast and free-ish — use that. After 3 iterations you'll have learned more about what works than after 30 minutes of overthinking the first try.
Some examples
- First try: 'Help me name my band.' Refine: 'I write punk songs about coding bugs. 10 names.'
- First try: 'Make this email better.' Refine: 'Same email, half the length, no greeting.'
- First try: 'Plan my study schedule.' Refine: 'Same plan, but add 15-min breaks every hour.'
- First try: 'Debug this.' Refine: 'Skip the explanation, just give me the fix as a diff.'
Try it!
For your next AI task, give yourself a 5-second budget for the first prompt. Refine three times. Compare to your usual.
Key terms in this lesson
End-of-lesson quiz
Check what stuck
8 questions · Score saves to your progress.
Lesson help
Questions are best handled with a grown-up here.
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