Your First Drill: Goal, Constraints, Role

When first teaching oi-tsuki, we start with the basics: "look, step, punch." Then we move on to focus on stance, breathing, and eventually improving complex elements like footwork and timing. Yet, despite the technical depth of karate, many karate-ka can be very effective by simply focusing on "look, step, punch."

Prompt Engineering follows a similar principle. At its most detailed, it is highly technical, and as the saying goes, "it's turtles all the way down," but you can achieve amazing results with an equivalent basic formula: "goal, constraints, role."

The fundamentals: Goal, Constraints, Role

Goal

Clearly describe the desired outcome. In karate we must "look" in the direction of our "goal" to hope to land the punch. Similarly, the AI must "look" in the direction of your "goal" if you ever hope to get what you want. Make sure both you and the AI have a clear vision of the target.

Constraints

These refine your goal and guide the model's output by limiting the potential miss-steps the AI might take. Similar to how a karate-ka needs to constrain their movement to ensure they "step" in the direction of their opponent.

Role

Assigning a role helps the AI focus its attention and produce output expected of that role. Identically, if you want a punch to look like an oi-tsuki then I'd make a point of asking a karate-ka to perform it. 😃

The Drill

You now have the recipe for an effective "AI oi-tsuki" and it's time to start practicing to hone your skill. I would encourage everyone to drill this newly learned skill.

I'll be following this post with a few concrete examples to prompt you with some ideas, but I encourage each of you to train your "little grey cells" so we'll all get better at communicating with smart machines.

Domo arigato gozaimashita.