Diving Into AI Prompting Patterns
Kickstarting my journey into the creative power of AI and laying the foundation for sharing it all.
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🌄 Into the Unknown
This week marks the start of a journey that feels exhilarating, humbling, and a bit daunting: I'm diving into the world of AI. Even with a background in philosophy, communications, programming, and design, the AI landscape is a different beast. I’m familiar with the discomfort of starting fresh, and my background helps, but it still feels like being dropped into a foreign country after only practicing a language in the classroom—enough to get by, but definitely not fluent.
So, here’s my self-imposed challenge: I’m committing to an extended deep dive into the creative power of modern AI tools. My mission is to learn, create, and share something new every day, building a body of work that positions me as a strong candidate to work with leading AI companies. I’ll document and share my journey weekly through this new addition to the newsletter and curate a website and GitHub repository with key learnings and resources. I’ll continue on this path until my current vision becomes real or until another, more fruitful direction emerges.
It’s intimidating to set stakes like this, but I know pushing through this initial phase will open doors to new breakthroughs for me (and hopefully you too). I’m ready to blaze a new path and share the journey openly.
So, as I mentioned earlier this week, expect to see me in your inbox on Sundays and Wednesdays. On Sundays, I’ll share my learning journey into AI, and on Wednesdays, I’ll send shorter essays with reflections on the intersection of technology, creativity, and craft.
To kick off this journey, let me share one of the first concepts I’ve delved into: prompting patterns.
🧭 The Compass
Prompting Patterns in AI
One of the first concepts I’ve explored is prompting patterns for text generation, focusing on tools like ChatGPT and Claude. At first glance, these tools can feel overwhelming; the blank text box is deceptively simple. It’s easy to fall into old habits and treat them like advanced search engines, but they have so much more to offer.
Prompting patterns help unlock this potential. Think of them like chord progressions in music—a framework that guides how you approach and structure your creative work in this new medium. Just as a songwriter chooses a progression to evoke a certain feeling, prompting patterns allow me to direct the AI’s output toward a desired style, tone, or area of focus. The excitement lies in seeing how the AI can emulate roles based on these patterns, providing me with not just information but a creative partnership. The possibilities feel endless, and I’m just starting to get a sense of how I can harness them to create something truly unique.
🗝️ Artifacts of the Week
What inspired me
Vanderbilt University Prompt Engineering Course
To deepen my understanding, I’m taking the Prompt Engineering course from Vanderbilt University on Coursera. While the course builds on a formal research paper, it has been eye-opening to see how much of it resonates with my own experiences and improvisations with these tools over the past couple of years. I’ve realized that some of the ad-hoc techniques I’d developed have formal names and structures—there’s something rewarding about seeing this informality codified into reusable tools.
One insight from the course is how rapidly this technology evolves. The course content was published not even two years ago, yet some patterns it describes need to be adapted for today’s environment. For example, tools like ChatGPT and Claude now have improved memory capabilities, which reduces the need for repeated context. This makes the patterns even more powerful and versatile.
Take the course → https://www.coursera.org/learn/prompt-engineering
What I made
I’m building a website companion to this newsletter where I will capture everything I learn and curate all the resources that helped me.
If you’re technical, you can also check out the Github Repo.
I started building this from scratch this week, so it’s still very basic. But I am pushing updates to it every day.
Inspired by the Vanderbilt team’s work, I’m curating prompting pattern guides tailored to creative professionals. I started by creating my own guides explaining their defined patterns, but will continue to build the list as I uncover and synthesize more useful patterns.
I’m commited to pushing this project ahead every day. To hold myself accountable and give you more insight into my process, I’m sharing my daily work log publicly. For my fellow super nerds, you can also check my Github commit history 😎.
📝 Field Note
The Power of "Act as..."
The Persona pattern, which uses the phrase “Act as…,” is one of the most approachable and impactful techniques I’ve encountered. With just a few words, you can transform AI into almost any persona you need—whether that’s an editor, interviewer, or strategist. These tools are powerful emulation machines, and with the Persona pattern, I can summon a creative partner tailored to my specific needs.
For example, starting with “Act as an insightful interviewer” allows the AI to guide me through a reflective process, helping me surface insights I might not have arrived at on my own. It’s like having an expert on call, ready to tackle whatever challenge I bring. This pattern doesn’t replace my creativity—it enhances it by providing a sounding board, a fresh perspective, or even a creative spark when I need one. It’s a reminder that while AI can be intimidating at first, with the right guidance, it becomes an infinite resource, ready to support me on the journey of creating something new.
🕵 Ready to Explore?
Here’s this week’s mission (should you choose to accept it):
Try the Persona pattern yourself. Open ChatGPT or Claude, and begin with a specific persona, like “Act as a talented editor.” Then, ask it to take an action that you'd expect from that persona. Here are a few ideas from my experience to get started:
“Act as a talented editor. Review my latest blog post draft and suggest improvements for clarity and style.”
“Act as an insightful interviewer. Ask me questions to help me explore new angles on a project I’m working on.”
“Act as a digital strategist. Propose a content strategy for increasing engagement on a tech-focused blog.”
Experiment with roles specific to your areas of interest and see how the AI’s output adapts. This pattern is a powerful way to tap into the creative possibilities of AI tools by framing them as true collaborators in your work.
Until next time,
Patrick
Help grow the Unknown Arts AI Knowledge Base
I’m curating a thoughtful collection of resources to promote the true creative power of AI. Browse the website or the Github repo, and if you have an AI resource that genuinely helped you, I’d love to hear about it. Let’s build a path forward together.
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Looking forward to seeing you learn, build, and share in public! The Daily Log idea is inspiring too.