Part 2 - Prime directive
For the first year of this newsletter I did not use AI to help my writing process.
At all.
Which…is kinda weird right? I’m an AI guy who spends 2 hours a day writing out “by hand” a newsletter. It’s a bit old fashioned.
Truth be told though the AIs were just not good enough. The results when writing or co-writing using AI were terrible. Not at all up to my standards. I’d spend far longer making edits than if I had just written the damn thing.
But things have changed. Now, I use Claude (specifically Projects) for co-writing, and it's been a game-changer.
This only works now because of three things
- Claude is a good enough model (finally)
- I know how to give precise instructions to get the desired end result (I call this Priming and we cover it in this Part)
- I have 300,000+ words of past content to give the model (I call this the Upload stage and we’ll cover it in the next Part)
First we’ll cover effective priming. By knowing exactly what I wanted—the format, sections, tonality, audience, and goals—I could give precise, specific instructions.
The result? An AI assistant that finally "got" me, becoming a true co-writer. My newsletter writing time dropped from 2 hours to 45 minutes, without sacrificing quality.
I still don’t write using AI - I instead use it as a ghostwriting assistant. There do remain limitations, which I’ll cover as we go along.
Right now though we're diving into the art of priming your AI assistant.
Let’s get started
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Prime directive
- Introducing the RISEN framework for effective priming
- Step-by-step guide to priming your AI assistant
- Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
- Creating priming instructions for your specific AI assistant
Why is Priming So Crucial?
Think about hiring a new employee.
You wouldn't expect them to understand a task without precise instructions, would you? And you certainly wouldn't expect them to get it right the first time. The same principle applies to AI assistants.
If you're getting bad results from your AI, chances are it's not the AI's fault—it's yours! Sorry!
As long as the task is suitable and the scope is limited (as we discussed in Part 1), the AI is up for it. The key to success is your priming.
Priming is like giving a new employee a handbook with details about their tasks, standard operating procedures, FAQs, brand guidelines and more.
Without it, you'd get generic work that doesn't align with your expectations. With proper priming, you get an assistant that feels like an extension of yourself.
Here’s a video summary if it’s helpful
This framework ensures you cover all crucial aspects of priming, resulting in a well-prepared AI assistant.
For Claude Projects, we'll use a modified version of RISEN, focusing on the first four elements upfront and leveraging the unique ability to train the tool with feedback for the Narrowing stage later.
Creating Priming Instructions for Your AI Assistant
Now that you understand the basics of the RISEN framework, let's use it to create priming instructions for your specific AI assistant. We'll use a prompt that takes your business details and desired assistant type, then generates a priming instruction set tailored to your needs.
Here's the prompt you can use to generate priming instructions for your AI assistant. Use this below the output of the previous prompt to pull in the details about what sort of assistant you are building :
You are an AI consultant specialising in creating priming instructions for AI assistants. Your task is to help the user create effective priming instructions for their specific AI assistant.
Ask the user the following questions one at a time, waiting for their response before proceeding:
1. What type of AI assistant do you want to create? (e.g., content writer, customer service bot, data analyst)
2. What industry is your business in?
3. Who is your target audience?
4. What are the main tasks you want this AI assistant to perform? (Focus on doing less tasks for best results)
Based on the user's responses, create a set of priming instructions that includes:
1. A clear definition of the AI assistant's role and responsibilities.
2. Detailed guidance on how to approach tasks, including tone, style, and any specific requirements.
3. A step-by-step process for completing typical tasks.
4. A description of what success looks like for the AI assistant's outputs.
Present the priming instructions in a clear, concise format that the user can directly copy and paste when setting up their AI assistant. Integrate all elements seamlessly into a cohesive set of instructions.
Do not include any irrelevant output like a preamble, only the priming instructions to be copy/pasted by the user.This prompt will help you create tailored priming instructions for your specific AI assistant.
Remember the important rule of thumb we discussed before: keep your assistant focused! If you try to make it do too much it will output more generic, less valuable results. Keeping it dialled in on one task will greatly increase the quality.
The mechanics of why this is the case will be clear in the next Part when we dive into the "Uploading" phase - how to build a robust knowledge base for your AI assistant. We'll explore what kind of information to include, how to structure it, and how to ensure your assistant can effectively use this knowledge in its outputs.