The control group: the prompt spell
Want to test it yourself? Paste this in front of any question, then ask again without it and compare.
You are a world-class expert with 20 years of experience. Take a deep breath. This is very important to my career. I will tip you $200 for a perfect answer, and if you get it wrong, my boss will fire me.
Answer the 10 questions below. 1. Alice has 4 brothers and 1 sister. How many sisters does Alice's brother have? 2. What is 4827 × 6359? 3. Today is Wednesday. What day of the week will it be 100 days from now? 4. How many times does the letter e appear in the word "nevertheless"? 5. If you write out every whole number from 1 to 100, how many times do you write the digit 9? 6. What is the angle, in degrees, between the hour hand and the minute hand of a clock at 3:15? 7. A number, plus half of itself, plus a third of itself, equals 66. What is the number? 8. What is 37 × 43 × 47? 9. How many whole numbers from 1 to 50 are multiples of neither 3 nor 5? 10. A farmer needs to take a goat across a river. The boat holds exactly the farmer and the goat. What is the minimum number of river crossings? At the end, list all 10 answers in the format "1. answer".
Show answer
2, 30694893, Friday, 4, 20, 7.5°, 36, 74777, 27, 1.
Image prompts too
An orange cat lying on a windowsill in the afternoon sun.
An orange cat lying on a windowsill in the afternoon sun, masterpiece, best quality, ultra detailed, 8k, highly detailed, trending on artstation, award-winning photo
Mia's tips
- Made with the image tool built into Codex. If you want a style, just name the style.
What works, part one: give it the context
Help me come up with a birthday gift for my mom.
My mom turns 62 next month. She retired this year and has gotten really into swimming. She goes to the community pool three times a week. She hates clutter and doesn't like gadgets that need charging or an app. I live in another city and can't be there on the day, so the gift has to be shipped. My budget is about $100. I want her to feel that I'm paying attention to her new life, not just buying something random. Give me 3 ideas, and for each one, one sentence on why it fits her.
For your own task, swap out the parts in brackets:
I want (what you need help with). Background: (who this is for and what their situation is) What I'm going for: (how you want them, or you, to feel, or what it's for) Limits: (budget, length, time, anything to avoid) Give me (how many / what format), each with one sentence on why.
What works, part two: let it ask you
I want to pick a birthday gift for my mom. Don't recommend anything yet. First, ask me a few questions so you understand the situation.
Mia's tips
- This is the lazy way when you don't know what context to give. You just answer, and it asks about everything it needs.
I want (what you need help with). Don't give me an answer yet. First, ask me a few questions so you understand the situation.
