A developer at my last job told me my AI prompts were too vague

She showed me how I was asking for "better" code instead of specifying constraints like response time and memory limit. Changed my whole workflow after that. Ever had someone critique your prompting style and it clicked?

2 comments

2 Comments

violag8011d ago

My friend Sarah had this exact thing happen at her startup. She kept asking for "cleaner code" and getting frustrated until a senior dev literally pulled up her prompts and said "cleaner how?" Then he showed her she needed to say things like "reduce API calls under 3 per session" or "keep the load time under 2 seconds on a slow network." It was like a lightbulb went off for her, she started treating prompts like instructions for a junior dev instead of wishes. She told me it changed how she talks to everyone now, not just AI.

abby_cooper11d ago

The "treat prompts like instructions for a junior dev" thing is spot on. I've started doing that too and it honestly makes everything click. You have to be super specific about what success looks like, not just what you don't want. Something that helped me was explaining the "why" behind my request. Like instead of just saying "make the code faster" I'll say "we have users on slow hotel wifi in rural areas so page load needs to stay under 3 seconds for them." That context gives the AI something to actually work with. It reminds me of when I have to tell a coworker exactly what I need for a project - being vague just wastes everyone's time.