Welcome To The Magic New Age Of Prompt Engineering & How It Will Change EVERYTHING!

Let’s start the article on a fun note: all articles I have published here over the years always include a catchy photo in the headline. Of course I had been trawling the internet for a pic punchy enough to get people engaged.

Not this time! This time I generated a wholly new image through the magic of prompt engineering and an app called Midjourney.

Please take a second! Consider what has just happened: through typing descriptive words into an app I was able to conjure up an image that expresses exactly what I want to visualise and share with you. Even Merlin would blush at this almost magical ability we now all possess.

Huston We Have A Problem –> Most People Don’t Know What They Say!!

The world has shifted forever in the last few months: machines have reached a new level of efficiency acceleration for human productivity that cannot longer be ignored.

We can now unlock information, ideas, strategies, solutions and even complete visualisations with the power of our words!

But herein lies the rub: listen to most people with great intensity and you will find out that most people are not able to communicate with the concise clarity and focus necessary to elicit a clear response or result from these new tools that are changing the game forever.

We are facing a two pronged dilemma and one question:

1. We now have the unparalleled capacity to create new solutions based on our capacity to input clearly formulated questions or statements into the app of our choice (this means excellent semantic & vocabulary control)
2. Most people currently have lost the capacity for clear & concise communication based on excellent semantic control and access to a wide vocabulary toolset (we cannot have what we cannot speak)
3. Why have humans lost the ability for clear communication & how do we regain this power?

Computers Have No Emotions – We Do!

Intrinsically human beings a socio-political creatures: we navigate the intricacies of being polite, creating alliances, not antagonising the boss, etc, etc on a daily basis. This means that we have learned to communicate in an oblique fashion riddled with relativistic words like ‘try’ ‘in a way’ ‘we should’. Words, phrases and innuendos that hope to convey a certain intent without taking a definite stand

This may seem safe to navigate human interactions but is also creates a colossal waste of time and efficiency at two levels:

1. If I have an excellent idea but spend my time wrapping it into overly polite language in the hopes to come across as non ‘aggressive’ I stand the chance of being ignored or to be thought as being too tepid to achieve the new idea. Thousands of hours go to waste navigating the human politeness labyrinths instead of sharing a clearly formulated thought
2. Even worse for us humans is the simple fact that the machine entity isn’t interested in human software language: it needs consummate clarity of intention formulated into clear sequence of words with maximum descriptive power to achieve the desired results

The Key: Installing A New Language Of Semantic Clarity & Defined Intention

A quick definition of prompt engineering will help us understand why we need to change the way we speak and communicate at all levels:

‘Think of it as a computer program that can understand what you are asking and generate a response in natural language, similar to how you would communicate with another person’

Achieving maximum prompt engineering skills will not be a matter of IF but HOW FAST I can upskill my team to stay ahead of the curve.

However, here is what makes the difference when we want to unlock the full power of these almost magic new powers:

‘Clear language input is extremely important to achieve excellent results in prompt engineering. The quality of the language generated by a language model depends largely on the quality and specificity of the language used to train and fine-tune the model’

The above quotes actually come from ChatGPT… we better listen to our friend if we want to unlock its full potential.

First Steps: How Do I Install This New Level Of Semantic Control & Clarity Of Intent in My Team

Our brain is binary. It operates on two simple buttons:

YES/NO

Try, could, maybe, in a way and all such socio-political conditional words lead to an error function in the brain: the intention is not clearly stated, no clear action can be taken.

We need to install a new culture: from now on we will be HONEST but not POLITE. Because: if we are POLITE we cannot be HONEST

This means: you as a leader will set out new rules for the game. All conditional words are out. The only two words allowed are:

YES – if so: who will do what by when? What support does the individual need to achieve the goal?

NO – if so: why can’t we proceed, can the obstacles be removed? If so: How? The ‘how’ becomes a YES (we proceed as above). If the NO remains a NO ,because of insurmountable obstacles, then we proceed to other actions

Initially you will see how hard wired the brain has become by decades of ‘polite speak’ to utter conditional words. As you replace these by clear YES/NO loops your efficiency will increase by 20-30% within 3 months (the brain needs 66 days to create new synaptic connections)

This new level of semantic control will now allow your team to leapfrog into a completely new level of productivity by becoming excellent prompt engineers unlocking the full power of the technologies at hand

For more information, case studies and questions on transforming your team into a productivity powerhouse feel free to contact us at roger@rogerkonopasek.com