When I first used ChatGPT 10 months ago, I knew I had discovered a fantastic new tool.

At the time, prompt engineering was very abstract and mostly discussed in scientific papers, yet I wanted to use ChatGPT for concrete everyday tasks! I sat down and got to work: 1000 hours later, I identified 3 techniques to will make you better at ChatGPT.

1. Use the regenerate button

To best understand how ChatGPT works, hit "Regenerate" frequently.

Notice how it's sometimes spot-on and sometimes completely wrong. By seeing many responses, you will start discerning useful results from mere hallucinations.

If pressing regenerate multiple times always outputs something useful, you know you have a winner!

2. Don't ask ChatGPT to solve a problem: ask it how to solve a problem

ChatGPT is not very good at solving problems: it often gives incorrect answers.

That's because the solution to your exact problem won't be present in the material it has been trained on. However, it probably knows how to solve problems of the same type; asking it to find a step by step solution or write a program that does usually works!

You'll then have correct instructions (or program!) to solve many similar problems.

3. Use whimsical examples

Want to see if ChatGPT truly understands your prompt? Test it in a bizarre domain! Ask for Excel formulas to calculate the 'circumference of giraffe necks' rather than standard business scenarios.

Such whimsical settings help you gauge the prompt's effectiveness without your brain's tendency to find meaning where none exists.