Hey there,
Welcome to Week 1 of the AI, Eh? Summer Boot Camp. Eight weeks, one skill at a time, and by the end you will have a real toolkit built by you, tested on your own life, ready to reuse whenever you need it.
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🍁 To review previous issues, visit theaieh.ca/articles |
Here is how the summer works, and it is the same shape every single week, so once you have done it once, you will know exactly what to expect from here on out.
| A detailed prompt. A complete, ready to use prompt you copy and paste straight into an AI tool. No blanks, no guessing what to fill in. |
| An iteration. A real fix, also ready to copy and paste, showing you exactly how to correct AI's answer when it is not quite right. |
| Something personal. You take what you just learned and apply it to something real going on in your own life. |
| Build your Prompt Card. You save what you built to your toolkit, so it is there for you to reuse whenever you need it again. |
That is every week of the summer. Let's start.
First, open a blank document
Before anything else, this takes thirty seconds. If you use Google Docs, go to docs.google.com and click the blank page option. If you use Word, open the app, click New, then Blank document. Name it "My AI Toolkit."
This is where your Prompt Cards live, starting today. By Week 8 you will have eight of them, each one a real, working tool you built and tested yourself.
Six things every good prompt needs
Before we run anything, here is the checklist behind every prompt you will ever write well. Keep this in your head, every time, for the rest of the summer and beyond.
| 1. Give it context. Who you are and what is actually going on, anything AI could not otherwise know. |
| 2. Be specific about the task. Not "help me plan a trip," exactly what you want it to produce. |
| 3. Set your real constraints. Budget, timeline, ages, distance, whatever actually limits your options. |
| 4. Tell it the format you want back. A list, a table, short sections, a word limit. Do not let it guess. |
| 5. Ask it to flag uncertainty. Anything it is not fully sure about, so you know what to double check yourself. |
| 6. Protect your privacy. Give it the details it needs to help you, never anything that identifies you specifically. Real budget, real ages, real distance. Not your last name, your address, or anything you would not want sitting on someone else's server. |
Watch for all six in the prompt below. Every one of them is in there.
Step 1: Run this prompt exactly as written
Open ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever AI tool you already have. Click into a new chat. Paste the whole thing below in, exactly as written, and hit enter. If you do not have a tool yet, ChatGPT and Claude are both free to start with, no credit card needed, and either one works fine here.
| "I'm a parent in Winnipeg planning a weekend getaway for my family of four, two adults and two kids ages 7 and 10. We want a destination within a three hour drive of Winnipeg, with a total budget of $800 for two nights, covering lodging, gas, and food. We own camping gear, so a campground option works, but I'd also like one non-camping option in case the weather turns. Give me three specific destination options. For each one, tell me exactly where to stay, one free or low cost activity, and one paid activity under $30. Present each option as its own short section, not one long paragraph, and flag anything you're not fully certain about, like exact prices or operating hours, so I know what to verify myself before we commit." |
Step 2: Here is how you fix it when it is not quite right
You will probably get three solid sounding options back. But look closely, because AI does not always know local realities, especially in peak season. Say destination two suggests a lakefront cottage as your non-camping backup. Good idea in theory, except a quick look shows a decent lakefront cottage in July actually runs about $275 a night, which is $550 for two nights before you have added a dollar of gas or food. Once you add roughly $100 in gas and $150 to $200 in food for a family of four, you have blown well past your $800 total.
This is the moment most people either give up or start over from scratch with a whole new prompt. Do neither. Just tell it what is wrong, in one line, in the same conversation.
| "The cottage option for destination two is over budget once I looked it up, closer to $275 a night in July. Can you swap destination two for something with a cheaper non-camping backup, or suggest we just camp there instead and skip the cottage idea." |
That is the whole move. One sentence, pointed at the exact thing that was wrong, in the same chat. AI did not fail you here, it just did not know summer cottage rates in your area, so you told it. That is iteration, and it is the single most useful habit in this entire boot camp.
Step 3: Build your own, then save it as a Prompt Card
Now think of something real coming up in your own life this summer. Does not have to be a trip, could be anything at all. In your head, walk through it. What is actually going on, who is involved and why it matters right now. What you actually want back, the real thing you want handed to you, not just "help me." Your real limits, budget, time, people, distance, whatever is actually boxing you in. How you want it formatted, short sections, a list, a table, whatever you would actually read. What you want it to double check before you trust it. And keep it anonymous, real details, no names or addresses.
Now say all of that out loud as one real paragraph, the way you would actually explain it to a friend. That is your prompt. Paste it in and run it.
Once you have a result, ask yourself two quick things. Did anything come back not quite right? If so, what one line did you send to fix it?
Now open your toolkit doc, add a heading called Prompt Card 1, and write out these four things yourself, based on what you just did.
| What this is for. One line, plain language, describing your real situation. |
| The prompt. The real paragraph you wrote and ran. |
| The fix that got it there. The one line you sent to correct it, if you needed one. |
| When to use it again. One line reminding future you when this applies. |
That is Prompt Card 1, done, and it is genuinely yours. Every week from here adds another card, same four fields, same format. By Week 8 you will have eight real, working prompts, each one proven on your own life, sitting in one place you can actually find again.
Coming up next week
Week 2 is Everyday Life. Same three steps, run it, fix it, card it, pointed at your actual day. Bring your toolkit doc, Prompt Card 2 is next.
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AI assisted, Human led. Whatever AI produces for you, always read it, verify it, and make it sound like you. AI is an incredible first draft machine. Your judgment, your voice, and your values are always the final layer. |
Hit reply and tell me what your Prompt Card 1 turned out to be. I read every single one.
Know someone who keeps saying they want to "get into AI" but does not know where to start? Forward this to them. Boot Camp starts wherever they join in.
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Talk soon,
Chris
Founder, AI, Eh?