Confidence Through Play

In 2023, researcher Derek Lomas made an argument that prompt engineering — the logical, methodical, measurement-oriented approach — was insufficient for working with AI. Not wrong, just incomplete.

The core insight: Large language models are inscrutable. We don't fully understand how they produce their outputs. That means the engineering mindset, which depends on understanding how things work, has a ceiling.

What works beyond that ceiling? Intuition developed through play.

The 12 principles of Prompt Vibing

These aren't rules. They're orientations:

1. Authenticity — Communicate openly about your real objectives. Use the prompting itself to clarify what you want.
2. Intuitive thinking — Develop feel for how the AI responds. This only comes from experience, not from reading about it.
3. Playfulness — Try things for fun. Expect to experiment. The pressure to "get it right" kills creativity.
4. Voice and style — Know how you want things to sound and feel. AI is extremely sensitive to direction.
5. Open-mindedness — Start with open-ended prompts. See what comes back before narrowing.
6. Willingness to follow tangents — Some of the best discoveries come from unexpected directions.
7. Fearlessness — Push boundaries. You can always undo.
8. Letting go of expectations — Focus on the conversation, not on a predetermined outcome.
9. Careful criticism — Ask for the type of feedback you want: "constructive", "harsh", "from the perspective of a user."
10. Curate the vibe — If the conversation drifts, steer it back. You're the director.
11. Resilience — Bad results are normal. They're data, not failure.
12. Find the groove — Aim for flow — that state where prompts and responses align and the work moves fast.

Vibes Are Valid

Your emotional response to what you see is real data.