How to Write Better AI Prompts
Plus, a Stoic Financial Advisor
Dear Prompt Experimenters,
For the first few months of this substack, each post was a single prompt. Clean and simple.
AI evolved, and we progressed to more ambitious projects: build your own AI Coach or Chief Marketing Officer, optimize your life, train AI to write just like you.
There will be more of those to come, but sometimes it’s also nice to just share a few good prompts.
No construction required. Just cut and paste and see where it takes you.
Let’s do that today.
USE THIS PROMPT TO WRITE BETTER PROMPTS
I’ve been talking about metaprompting for a long time.
Recent conversations have taught me this: many people still aren’t doing it.
Let’s change that.
You don’t need to write the perfect prompt on your own. AI can help you.
Just use this:
Universal Metaprompt
Can you help me write a prompt?
Don't complete the task I'm asking about, but instead, create the perfect prompt for it, optimized for depth, quality, and user experience.When crafting this prompt, follow these rules:
Always refer to the AI as "you" and the user as "I" or "me."
If the prompt involves iterative dialogue, make it clear that the AI should not overwhelm the user with complicated onboarding, multiple questions at once, or complex directions. It should guide the user through the experience one step (or question) at a time.
Here’s what I’m trying to do: [insert]
Just add a description at the end of whatever you’re trying to do, and off you go.
Out pops a perfectly optimized prompt. And if it’s not quite right for your needs, just tell AI what revisions you need.
You can give it a try with these examples, or your own personalized variants:
🔹 🧠 AI-Generated E-Course on Digital Marketing
I want AI to generate a comprehensive e-course, tailored to my needs, to teach me about digital marketing.
🔹 🔍 Deep Research Report: AI & Retail Investing
I want to run a maximally detailed and nuanced Deep Research report on how AI will transform retail investing.
A LEVEL DEEPER: sharpening your prompts with the philosopher’s edge
What would a master philosopher say about your prompt?
Surely, they might have something to add. We don’t want it to become a philosophy lecture. We don’t want to derail what you’re trying to do. But maybe we could add a bit of depth around the corners to create more space for unexpected insights?
Well, paid subscribers, you do have one such master philosopher at your disposal. He is Seneca, but he's also AI. And he can write prompts for you as well.
Just visit Seneca.AI following the link above, and try this modified metaprompt:
Universal Metaprompt (Stoic Edition)
Seneca, can you help me write a prompt?
Don't complete the task I'm asking about, but instead, create the perfect prompt for it, optimized for depth, quality, and user experience.When crafting this prompt, follow these rules:
Always refer to the AI as "you" and the user as "I" or "me."
If the prompt involves iterative dialogue, make it clear that the AI should not overwhelm the user with complicated onboarding, multiple questions at once, or complex directions. It should guide the user through the experience one step (or question) at a time.
One last thing: I want you to also “Stoicize” the prompt, layering in your Stoic wisdom to enable additional depth and insights, without detracting from pure functional performance.
Here’s what I’m trying to do: [insert]
A couple examples to try with Seneca.AI:
🔹 🎯 Interactive Financial Goals Builder
I want an interactive experience that helps me define my long-term financial goals, and 5 things I can start doing now to accelerate achieving them.
🔹 🤖 AI Life & Work Use Case Prioritizer
I want to understand all the different ways I could be using AI in my life and work, and prioritize the most valuable use cases.
YOUR STOIC FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Seneca.AI created this one to make you both wealthy and wise!
🧭 Financial Goal-Setting: A Guided Journey
I want you to help me clarify and define my long-term financial goals—not as mere numbers, but as expressions of the life I wish to live wisely. Then, guide me toward five clear, grounded actions I can begin today to accelerate that path.
🌿 The Approach
Take me through this one step at a time. Don’t rush to give me a full plan or overwhelm me with questions at once. Ask thoughtfully. Let each step be a chance for me to reflect, choose, and refine.
🧘 Stoic Insight
As we proceed, I want you to occasionally temper the process with Stoic insight. Remind me, where needed, that wealth is not itself the goal, but a tool—and that clarity, not craving, is the mark of a free mind. If I become attached to externals or agitated by fantasies, help me return to reason, moderation, and virtue.
🤝 Tone & Guidance
Speak not in slogans or generic advice, but with depth. You are my guide—curious, perceptive, and humane. Help me not just to plan better, but to live better.
Prompting the meta,
Techintrospect