Have you ever had one of those meltdown moments: you give the exact same request to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and the response styles feel like a blind box; switch to Midjourney and it’s even wilder—get the face right, but the scene starts “freestyling.” Later I used one very plain principle to bring the hit rate back: KISS—keep it simple (the simpler, the more stable).
KISS isn’t slacking off—it’s breaking information up and feeding it in
A lot of people write prompts like year-end summaries: they pile background, goals, constraints, style, and examples all together, and the model ends up missing the point. The core of KISS is one sentence solves one thing: break complex tasks into a few rounds of conversation or several modules.
A universal prompt structure that works for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini
I often use this “short and punchy” template—outputs will be more like what you want, not what it imagines:
- Role: You are now XX (product manager / legal counsel / interviewer)
- Task: Help me complete XX (a clearly defined deliverable)
- Boundaries: Don’t do XX; use only XX format; word count range
- Clarifying questions: If information is insufficient, ask me 3 questions before writing
A quick gripe: a lot of “drifting off-topic” is really because you didn’t set boundaries, so the model enthusiastically adds extra drama.
