AI is not hard to use; what's difficult is figuring out what you really want in your own mind.

The prompt is not "make AI smarter".
but forces you to articulate your vague thoughts clearly.
The more vague the things you give it, the more it seems to be guessing.
The clearer the structure you give it, the more it resembles a professional tool.

What is the essence of a prompt?
Many people think the prompt is:
A sentence for AI to understand me.

In fact:
A set of instructions for AI:
How you want it to think, from what perspective, to what extent, and what to ultimately deliver.

So prompts are not commands, and definitely not spells,
but rather a communication protocol.

2. Why do most people feel that AI is somewhat useful, but not very useful?
Because they only did half of the work.

They only tell the AI:
What do I want

but did not tell:
Why
In what scenarios is it used?
Who is it for?
What is considered good, and what is considered bad

So the model can only rely on average understanding to guess what you want,
The result is certainly unstable.

3. All good prompts essentially do one thing: align.

The thoughts in your mind are, by default, chaotic, jumping, and only valid for yourself.
And AI only consumes one thing: structured information.

So what you need to do is not to write prompts,
but rather to break a thought into several parts that can be understood as models.

4. The 4 Most Critical Things (If you don't write them, AI can only make random guesses)

1️⃣ Where do you hope it stands to think?

It's not formalism, but perspective control.
If you let it act as a researcher, it will be more rigorous.
If you let it act as an editor, it will consider readability.
If you say nothing, it will use the perspective of a passerby.

2️⃣ What do you actually want it for?

Analyze and write about this kind of statement.
The amount of information is almost 0 for AI.
What is truly useful is:

What action to take
What is ultimately delivered?

The more it resembles a delivery demand, the more stable the result.

3️⃣ Who is this thing written for?
This is a point that many people completely overlook.
Content for beginners and content for experienced users,
Even if the theme is the same, the writing style is completely different.

You don't tell AI who the audience is,
It can only write a version that anyone would feel is insufficient.

4️⃣ What counts as doing well?

This is the dividing line between experts and ordinary users.

If you don't tell the AI:

What points must be included?
What counts as failure?
Can it be blurred?
Then it cannot self-check,
I can only give you a result that looks decent.

Five, context is not nonsense, it is fuel.
AI does not know enough,
but I don't know which set of premises you are using now.

Background, data, examples, boundaries,
These things are not being verbose.
but rather to help the model take fewer detours

In a nutshell:
Important information is not provided, so the model can only guess.

6. Constraints are not shackles, but accelerators.

Many people fear constraints, believing it will limit the model's performance.

But the reality is:

No constraints → Divergent and uncontrollable output

Constrained → Output centralized and reusable

Format, style, scope, prohibitions,
In essence, it is all telling AI:
Don't waste computing power on useless places.

Seven, truly useful prompts are almost all modified.

The process for beginners is:
Write a sentence → Unsatisfied → Change to another sentence

The process for veterans is:
Build the framework → Run once → Check for deviations → Supplement information → Solidify the template
Prompts are not one-time consumables,
but rather an asset that becomes more valuable the more it is used

8. If you only remember one sentence
When you think AI is not smart,
It's highly unlikely that the issue is with the model,
But you haven't thought the problem through.

Prompt engineering, at its core, is not about "whether you can use AI".
But it is about whether you have the ability to turn chaotic intuition into clear structure.