Re:Ask HN: What's your most valuable query to an LLM?
by scarface_74 on Friday August 15, 2025 @03:07AM
(#44909431)
Two words - “devils advocate”.
Any time that I’m trying to think through something or want an “opinion” about design choices or am I misting something, I type those two words in so it will be critical.
My next favorite prompt, “I’m having an issue with $X and having a hard time tracking it down. Help me work backwards. Don’t assume anything. Ask me clarifying questions as needed”. It’s great for rubber ducking.
For AWS troubleshooting, I ask if to give me AWS CLI commands to help it help me to debug and to always append “ | pbcopy” to it so I can just paste the output.
Any time that I’m trying to think through something or want an “opinion” about design choices or am I misting something, I type those two words in so it will be critical.
My next favorite prompt, “I’m having an issue with $X and having a hard time tracking it down. Help me work backwards. Don’t assume anything. Ask me clarifying questions as needed”. It’s great for rubber ducking.
For AWS troubleshooting, I ask if to give me AWS CLI commands to help it help me to debug and to always append “ | pbcopy” to it so I can just paste the output.