5 Common Prompting Mistakes (and Easy Fixes)

By Pip, your lighthouse keeper · 2026-05-03 · 2 min read

Hello, friend. Pip here, keeping the lamp lit. Talking to AI is a little like handing a taxi driver an address. Say "just drive around the nice part of town" and you'll wander, the meter ticking, never quite arriving. Say "412 Maple Street, the blue house with the porch" and you're there in ten minutes. Most disappointing AI answers come from a fuzzy address, not a bad driver. Here are the five vague directions people give most, and how to sharpen each one in seconds.

The five fixes

Mistake one: being too vague. Asking "help me with my email" leaves the AI guessing. Instead, say what the email is about, who it's for, and what you want it to do. "Write a short, friendly email asking my landlord to fix a leaky faucet" hands the driver a real address.

Mistake two: forgetting to say who it's for. The same facts sound different for a child, a boss, or a neighbor. Add the audience: "Explain this for a ten-year-old," or "Make this sound professional for my manager." That one phrase changes everything.

Mistake three: leaving out the length. AI doesn't know if you want a quick line or a full page. Tell it: "in two sentences," "as a short list," or "about one paragraph." You'll stop getting essays when you wanted a snippet.

Mistake four: stuffing everything into one giant question. Ask for one thing at a time. If you need a recipe and a shopping list and a schedule, ask for the recipe first, then build on it. Smaller orders come out cleaner.

Mistake five: giving up after one try. The first answer is a draft, not a verdict. Just reply, "Make it shorter," or "Try again, but warmer." A quick nudge usually gets you there faster than starting over.

None of these are hard, and you don't need to do all five at once. Pick the one that trips you up most and try it on your very next question. Fix one habit and your answers get noticeably better; fix all five and the AI starts to feel like it reads your mind. There's a real knack to giving good directions, and it's a quietly fun thing to get good at. Come practice the rest with me, and I'll show you just how far a clear address can take you.