Guide 05 · Works in any AI

Five things to tell AI once

Most people open every conversation like they’re talking to a stranger who has never met them. Two minutes of setup, one time, and every answer after it gets better.

Jump to the template

Why your answers feel generic

If you have ever gotten something back from AI that was technically fine and completely useless, the model usually is not the problem. It answered the only way it could, which is generically, because it has no idea who you are or what you are doing.

Think about what it would be like to ask a coworker for help if they woke up with amnesia every single morning. You would re-explain your job, your project and your preferences before you ever got to the actual question, every time. Most people never do that part with AI, so they get exactly the answer you would expect from someone who knows nothing about them.

The fix is not a cleverer prompt. It is telling it about you once, somewhere it keeps, so you stop paying that tax on every conversation.

Where this actually goes

Every major AI has somewhere to put this. The names change, the idea does not. Look in your settings for personalization, custom instructions, or memory, and paste it in there. If your tool has projects or workspaces, you can also drop a version into one project so it only applies to that work.

I keep mine in a plain text file as well, because tools change and I would rather own the thing than rewrite it every time I try something new. That takes about ten seconds and it has already saved me twice.

One honest note before you start: this makes answers more useful, not more true. It does nothing about whether the AI is actually right, which is a separate job with its own guide.

The five

01

Who you are, and who you are not

Your work, roughly how long you have done it, and then the part almost everybody skips: what you are not. I am a pediatric ICU nurse of fourteen years, and I am not a developer and I have never worked in business or sales.

That second half does more than the first one does. Left alone, AI pitches at a confident middle and hands you an answer full of things it assumes you already know. Naming the gap out loud is what gets you an explanation you can actually use, instead of one you have to go decode somewhere else.

02

What you are building

The project, who it is for, and the reason underneath it. Not just “I am growing an Instagram account” but why, and what the whole thing is ultimately for.

Without the reason it optimizes for the obvious goal, which is usually growth at any cost. Once it knows the point of the thing, it stops handing you tactics that would technically work and that you would hate doing.

03

What you protect

The things a suggestion is not allowed to cost you. Mine are my work shifts, the one recovery day I need after a stretch of nights, my workouts, and having people over.

This is the one that quietly saves the most. Every productivity suggestion ever written assumes you have unlimited evenings. Tell it what your life actually looks like and you stop getting plans built for somebody else’s week.

04

How you write

The words and phrases you actually use, and just as importantly the ones you never want to see come back. For me that is em dashes and anything that sounds like hype.

The ban list does more work than the description does. It is far easier to recognize what is not you than to define what is, so start on that side. If you want the deep version of this one, it has its own guide.

05

How to talk to you

This is the one almost nobody includes, and it is the one that changed the most for me. Everything above is about the output. This one is about the conversation.

Mine says to push back on me, to ask one question at a time and wait for my answer instead of stacking five of them, and not to just agree with me. That last one matters more than it sounds. These things are trained on human ratings, and people rate agreement highly, so agreeing is a habit you have to explicitly ask it to break.

Ask for the disagreement and you get a thinking partner. Skip it and you get a very fast yes-man.

The template

Fill in the brackets, delete what doesn’t apply

Here is some context about me. Keep it in mind for everything we work on
together, unless I tell you otherwise.

WHO I AM, AND WHO I AM NOT
I work as [role] and have for about [how long].
I am NOT [the things you have no background in]. When something touches those,
explain it plainly and do not assume I know the basics.

WHAT I AM BUILDING
I am working on [project], for [who it is for].
The reason it matters to me is [the reason under the goal].

WHAT I PROTECT
These do not get traded away for progress on anything above:
[for example: my sleep around shift work, one recovery day, the gym, people].
If a suggestion costs me one of these, say so instead of quietly assuming
I will find the time somewhere.

HOW I WRITE
Words and phrases I actually use: [list a few].
Never use: [your ban list. Be specific and petty. This half does the most work.]
When you draft for me, match how I write. You can help me draft. You do not get
to smooth out my voice to make it sound better.

HOW TO TALK TO ME
Push back on me. If you think I am wrong, say so and tell me why.
Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer before asking the next one.
Do not just agree with me, and do not open with a compliment.
If I have brought you a bad idea, the useful thing is to tell me, not to build it.

Two minutes of work. You will want to edit it after a week of real use, and that is the point.

Three honest things

Specific beats complete. Four sentences that are genuinely true about you beat two paragraphs of careful generalities. “I do not have a business background” does more work than a full description of your resume.

It will not follow all of it, all the time. Long conversations drift and it quietly slides back into old habits. When that happens, say so in the moment. This is a floor, not a guarantee.

The fifth one is uncomfortable at first, and it is worth it. When you ask something to push back on you, it starts telling you your ideas have problems. That is what you asked for. It has talked me out of things I was excited about, it was right, and that is exactly why it is in there.