The most underestimated superpower of 2026
There's a skill that separates those who use ChatGPT to "play around" from those who use it to generate real value.
It's knowing how to ask.
"Prompt engineering is the difference between getting a mediocre answer and one that saves you 10 hours of work." — Riley Goodside, Scale AI
Why does it matter so much?
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SAME MODEL, VERY DIFFERENT RESULTS │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ BASIC PROMPT PROFESSIONAL PROMPT │
│ ───────────── ─────────────────── │
│ │
│ "Write me an email" "Act as a CEO. Write a │
│ 3-paragraph email to my │
│ team announcing we hit │
│ our sales target. │
│ Tone: celebratory but │
│ professional." │
│ │
│ RESULT: Generic RESULT: Ready to send │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The restaurant analogy
Imagine you walk into a restaurant. If you tell the chef "I want to eat something", they'll bring whatever they decide.
But if you say: "I want a medium-rare steak with mushroom sauce, no onions because I'm allergic, ready in 20 minutes because I have a meeting."
The chef has all the information to give you exactly what you need.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ FROM RESTAURANT TO PROMPT │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ RESTAURANT PROMPT ENGINEERING │
│ ────────── ────────────────── │
│ │
│ What you want to eat → What task you need │
│ How you want it → Output format │
│ Restrictions → What NOT to include │
│ Context (the meeting) → Why you need it │
│ The chef → The AI model │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The 5 elements of a professional prompt
1. ROLE (Who the AI should be)
"You are a senior developer with 10 years of experience..."
2. TASK (What it should do)
"Review this code and find bugs..."
3. CONTEXT (Relevant information)
"Our service was down for 3 hours yesterday..."
4. FORMAT (How you want the response)
"Give me 5 ideas. For each include: name, description, cost..."
5. CONSTRAINTS (What it should NOT do)
"Don't use technical jargon. Maximum 300 words..."
The CERO framework
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CERO FRAMEWORK │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ C - Context │ What's the situation? │
│ E - Expectation │ What result do you want? │
│ R - Role │ Who should the AI be? │
│ O - Output │ In what format do you need it? │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The perfect prompt doesn't exist (and that's OK)
"The best prompt is the one you iterate." — Simon Willison
- Write your first prompt
- Evaluate the result
- Identify what's missing or extra
- Adjust and repeat