Beyond the Slot Machine: How to Use AI Better Than 99% of People

(Based on insights from Dan Koe’s YouTube video, "How To Use AI Better Than 99% Of People (This Changed My Life)")

Hey there, fellow knowledge seeker!

If you’ve been feeling like the massive hype around AI last year has fizzled out, you’re not alone. When LLMs like ChatGPT first exploded, everyone called them "life-changing," but for the average person, the reality hasn't quite matched the promise. Why? Because most of us treat AI like a slot machine. We drop in a quick query, pull the lever, and hope for a jackpot—but what we usually get is boring, generic "AI slop".

If you’re ready to unlock a genuine superpower that puts you ahead of 99% of other AI users, it’s time for a radical mindset shift: Stop treating the AI like a cool new search engine and start treating it like a highly paid digital employee.

This isn't about using fancy new tools; it’s about a two-step methodology for teaching the AI exactly what to do, imposing your own sense of taste and expertise onto the output, and ensuring the results are superior and customized, every single time.

Step 1: Write the Expert Instruction Manual

If you ask the AI, "Generate a viral YouTube script," it has to guess. And when it guesses, it pulls from the "onslaught of mediocre methods" found all over the internet. The fix? You need to write incredibly detailed, complex prompts—usually ranging from 500 to 2,000 words.

These detailed prompts teach the AI how you or a proven expert would approach the task, whether it's creating a compelling offer or writing a landing page.

But what if you aren't the expert yet? No problem! The process offers four options to gather these instructions:

1. Write It Yourself: This is ideal if you’ve already done the thing hundreds of times and can deconstruct your exact method, such as outlining how you structure your unique content.

2. Ask the AI for a Guide: For tasks that don't require much personal variation or creative thought, like creating a comprehensive customer avatar, you can simply ask the AI for the most detailed guide available.

3. Find an Expert Source: Want to learn how the pros do it? Upload a PDF from a respected book (like a copywriting classic) or link a long expert YouTube video transcript and instruct the AI to turn that material into an actionable, step-by-step guide.

4. Emulate Success: Find an example you love—maybe a captivating landing page or a successful newsletter structure—paste the content into the chat, and instruct the AI to break down the structure, psychological tactics, and why it works, writing it all as a step-by-step teaching guide.

Once you have this detailed guide (the "how-to"), you’ve completed the prerequisite to the real magic.

Step 2: The Meta Prompt and Context Gathering

Having the expert instructions is great, but without your specific context—your product, your company, your customer avatar—the AI will still fail to produce truly compelling output. This is where the meta prompt comes in.

A meta prompt is simply a prompt that helps you create other structured prompts. It’s built on a predictable, multi-phase structure designed to inject crucial personalization:

1. Phase 1: Context Gathering (The Interview): This is the most crucial step. You instruct the AI to break down everything it needs to know to perform the task optimally, and then have it interview you, asking one question at a time, until all necessary context is gathered.

2. Execution Phase (The Action Plan): Only once the AI has the expert instructions (Step 1) AND your personal context (Phase 1) does it move to execution, generating the tailored output.

By documenting your processes this way, you create a reusable prompt library. Instead of wasting time guessing, you are orchestrating the process, allowing you to learn and build at the same time. You’re not just getting answers; you’re documenting refined processes that reduce your cognitive load and accelerate your results.

A Relevant Question: How will you transition your current one-sentence AI queries into structured, multi-phase prompt guides this week?

An Easy Takeaway: Stop writing one-sentence prompts. Treat every task as a project requiring a 500-2,000 word instruction manual for your "digital employee".

A Favorite Quote: "you need to think of AI as this sort of digital employee that will do exactly what you tell it to do".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source: Excerpts from the transcript of the video "How To Use AI Better Than 99% Of People (This Changed My Life)" uploaded on the YouTube channel "Dan Koe"