USE AI
BETTER.
Short, high-leverage mental models and prompting frameworks that transform random chatbot conversations into deterministic engineering workflows.
Stop Saying 'Make This Better'
The most common prompting mistake that leads to generic, robotic responses — and the exact 4-part structure that fixes it.
“Act as a Lead Technical Editor at an engineering publication. Rewrite this 3-paragraph explanation of database indexing for junior software developers. Keep the language direct and punchy. Eliminate all adjectives like 'seamless' or 'revolutionize'. Include one real-world analogy involving a library card catalog.”
Use AI As A Second Brain, Not A Search Box
How to use persistent context and project folders so your AI remembers your tech stack, preferences, and coding standards.
“Here is our `.cursorrules` / project instruction file. Memorize our rule that all database queries must use Kysely with strict TypeScript schemas, and never use raw SQL string interpolation.”
Turn Repeated Tasks Into Reusable Workflows
If you prompt an AI to do something more than twice a week, you shouldn't be typing it manually.
“Take the following `git log --oneline` output between v1.2 and v1.3. Categorize each commit into: [Features, Bug Fixes, Internal Performance]. Format in markdown ready for GitHub Release notes.”