prompting

4 articles · newest first

Isometric illustration of a workshop pegboard holding hand tools arranged from a tiny screwdriver up to a large drill, a hand reaching to choose the right-sized one

Which model for which job: don't send a jumbo to fetch coffee

Lesson 5 of talking to it well: most AI tools let you pick a model, and the right choice saves you time and money. When a fast model is plenty, and when a slow, thinking one earns its keep.

Sam Ortega · 1h ago · 5 min

Realistic painterly illustration of a lone figure at a fork in a trail at dusk, one path overgrown and tangled, the other a clean fresh road ahead

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When to start over vs fix: stop patching a tangle

Lesson 4 of talking to it well: the vibe coder's trap is prompting patch-on-patch until the code is a knot. When a fresh spec beats a fifth fix, shown with a real before-and-after.

Sam Ortega · 1h ago · 5 min

Isometric diorama of a small workbench where a draft page moves under a magnifying glass and comes out stamped with a green check, arrows looping back to the start

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The verify loop: the first answer is a draft, not a verdict

Lesson 2 of talking to it well: the habit that separates vibe coders who ship safe apps from those who ship bugs. Generate, then make the model attack its own answer, shown with a real before-and-after.

Sam Ortega · 1h ago · 5 min

Editorial infographic showing a vague scribbled sticky note on the left transformed by an arrow into a neat numbered specification checklist on the right

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Prompting is writing a spec: the words you add are the product

Lesson 1 of talking to it well: the single biggest upgrade to your vibe coding is treating a prompt as a spec. Watch the same request go from vague to specific to constrained, with the real outputs it produced.

Sam Ortega · 1h ago · 5 min