mAIn Street #69: Why We Should Stop Talking Prompt Engineering; CopyCat Automates Browser Tasks; Prompts That Replicate Insider Knowledge, Compare Different Religions from a Neutral Standpoint, and Expedite Academic Research
JULY 30, 2025
Prompts That Replicate Insider Knowledge, Compare Different Religions from a Neutral Standpoint, and to Expedite Academic Research
Let's Stop Talking About Prompt EngineeringContext Engineering and the 7 Questions You Should Be AskingOne of the drawbacks of covering AI every day is that you see tons of redundancy with the advice and tools that people share for getting the most out of it. I can't tell you how many times I've run into influencers promoting 28-day AI challenges or AI cheat sheets or "the prompt that changed everything." The get-rich-with-no-effort-only-AI posts are the worst. The reality is that only one thing will make AI useful to you, and that's context. Learning to prompt is easy. So is stealing them. But failing to connect those prompts to the right context will only return subpar results at best. That's why we need to start shifting the discussion and advice away from prompt engineering and toward the data that we feed into the model. Appropriate context takes two forms: the content of the context and modes of provision.I was recently talking with a friend about an annoying test that he had to take for his job. One of those time-wasters that are meant to only check a compliance box. (Yes, yes, I know, it’s still “cheating” on a test; don’t judge me.) I asked, "Why don't you just use ChatGPT so it doesn't waste so much of your day?" He said, "Well, I could do that but the test is all on the intranet. I don't have a way to copy and paste, and ChatGPT is blocked." I pointed out that he still has a phone with a camera. He can take pictures of the screen with the questions showing, then upload those photos to the mobile app on a 5G network and ask it to provide answers. See, ChatGPT can extract text from images, and 5G can work around any blocked sites that a WiFi network may have. In this case, the prompt is only part of the solution. Without the screengrabs and the right network, you're not going to be able to use ChatGPT to the best of its abilities. Cases like this are 80% contingent on context. Until you understand AI on that level, you're going to miss out on a ton of its functionality. So, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to start examining every problem in your daily life from a context-first approach. CHECK OUT THE 7 KEY QUESTIONS ON SUBSTACKHIGHLIGHTS: Microsoft reveals 40 jobs on the chopping block; Edge browser rolls out Copilot; Altman warns your ChatGPT convos aren't private; Hertz' AI is causing the company headaches
CopyCat Automates Browser TasksCopyCat is a brand-new, no-code platform that lets anyone automate repetitive web tasks without wrestling with brittle scripts. In its visual editor, you stitch together clear, step-by-step actions—“Go to URL,” “Click button,” “For each item,” etc.—and sprinkle in plain-language AI prompts (think “Log in with these credentials” or “Extract this table as JSON”) to handle the messy bits. Automations run in dedicated cloud browsers that keep session cookies (or wipe them in incognito), support loops and conditionals, and can be packaged as reusable “Sub-CopyCats” for easy remixing. A free tier and credit-based pricing make it approachable, while privacy modes, proxy support, and encrypted credential storage keep sensitive data out of sight. From scraping hard-to-reach government sites to uploading invoices into legacy portals, CopyCat promises to turn hours of mind-numbing clicks into background tasks you’ll never think about again. Read All mAIn Street Back Issues HereYour input fuels the content. Let me know how I did today! |
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