"Five minutes each week that might change your life."

Everyone is using AI to think less.

But the highest-leverage AI prompts do the exact opposite. They make you think more.

The most common AI prompts make us comfortable:

But, the best prompts force you into discomfort.

Here's what I mean.

This prompt went viral last year:
"Based on everything you know about me, what are my biggest blindspots?"

Decent.

But watch what happens when you engineer psychological pressure into the structure:

ROLE: You are an expert psychologist with a keen eye for spotting human patterns.

OBJECTIVE: Based on everything you know about me, what are my biggest blindspots? How are they holding me back? What potential am I wasting? What should I be paying attention to but I'm not?

INSTRUCTIONS:
- Reason from first principles
- Do not make large leaps—stick to what's most likely
- Go deep, don't hold back
- Be brutally honest

OUTPUT:
1. Summary: 3–5 sentences describing my patterns
2. Top 3 Blindspots with:
- Current belief
- Why it's flawed
- Harm pattern (how it shows up)
- Upgraded belief (clear, testable)
- One micro-experiment to validate the new belief

3. Next 14 Days: One behavioral test I can apply

TONE: Curious, incisive, non-judgmental. Challenge assumptions without shaming.

Here’s what just happened:

→ “Be brutally honest” strips politeness filters.
→ “First principles” blocks generic BS.
→ “Upgraded belief + micro-test” forces action.
→ “Next 14 days” removes the “someday” excuse.

People won’t shut up about optimizing prompts for clarity, when really they should be optimizing for inescapability.

We've democratized access to world-class coaching—
And most people are using it to write breakup emails.

If your AI conversations don't occasionally make you uncomfortable…
You're just having a very expensive echo chamber conversation.

See you Monday,
Mark

P.S. Mastering prompts is step one. But with new AI tools launching daily, how do you know which ones are actually worth your time?

​The Rundown AI is a free 5-minute daily newsletter that tells you exactly this, and teaches you how to use them. After signing up, you'll get a 2-min quiz that gives you personalized AI tool recommendations based on your specific job and challenges. No more guessing what works.

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