Ultimate Prompting Tool

Created By: Evan Kellner (promptheory.com)

Command Verb sets the tone and analytical approach. Each verb creates different expectations and outcomes:
  • Examine: Scrutinizes, dissects, investigates with depth. It's not just looking at the subject, it's demanding thoroughness and rigor from the very first word. Creates an expectation of detailed analysis rather than surface-level observation.
  • Explore: Invites discovery in unmapped territory. Becomes an expedition—curious, wandering, open to serendipity. Suggests a journey through ideas rather than a fixed conclusion.
  • Assess: Demands evaluation against standards. It weighs, measures, and judges. Promises conclusions about worth, not just observations about existence.
  • Query: Challenges through questions. Assumptions face interrogation, answers remain provisional. Probes uncertainty rather than delivering verdicts.
  • Probe: Targets with surgical precision. Like a doctor's instrument, it goes deep into specific areas. Examines particular pressure points rather than the entire landscape.
  • Generate: Creates new possibilities and outputs based on the perspective's influence on the subject.
  • Analyze: Breaks down the subject into component parts to understand structure and relationships.
  • Investigate: Systematically uncovers facts and evidence about the subject with methodical thoroughness.
  • Evaluate: Judges the merit, worth, or significance of the subject against explicit criteria.
  • Contextualize: Places the subject within a broader framework that gives it meaning and relevance.
  • Reframe: Shifts how the subject is perceived by presenting it through an alternative mental model.
Subject is your target—the concept, problem, or question needing illumination. The beauty lies in its flexibility.
  • Can be concrete ("planting a bee garden in Maryland"), abstract ("the concept of justice"), or analytical ("market shorts").
  • Works best when specific enough to provide boundaries but open enough to allow exploration.
  • The sweet spot ("native pollinator gardens in mid-Atlantic states") is where magic happens.
The subject defines the boundaries of your inquiry while still providing room for unexpected connections.
Connector creates transformation by establishing relationship between subject and perspective. Each connector shapes how the perspective interacts with the subject:
  • through the lens of: Creates a visual metaphor for filtering and focusing. It positions the perspective as an instrument of vision that reveals aspects of the subject invisible to the naked eye. Like an optical instrument, it focuses attention, magnifies details, and reveals layers invisible to casual observation. The lens doesn't just observe—it magnifies, clarifies, and sometimes distorts in revelatory ways.
  • channeled through: Positions perspective as a conduit rather than a static viewpoint. Information flows, transforms, and emerges changed. The subject travels through a specialized medium, picking up richness and nuance along the way.
  • interpreted through: Suggests active translation rather than passive observation. The perspective doesn't just view—it decodes, translates, and transforms raw data into meaningful insights. Emphasizes the interpretive process.
  • in the context of: Situates the subject within an environment that gives it meaning through relationship. The perspective becomes the ecosystem surrounding and informing the subject, providing background and framework.
  • juxtaposed with: Places subject and perspective side by side, allowing comparison, contrast, and creative friction between distinct elements.
  • filtered through: Emphasizes selective processing, where some elements pass through while others are blocked, creating refined outputs.
  • reframed by: Shifts the mental model or paradigm through which the subject is understood, applying a new conceptual structure.
  • reimagined as: Invites creative transformation where the subject takes on qualities or structures of the perspective in a more complete metamorphosis.
Perspective is your unexpected element—the framework, discipline, methodology, or viewpoint that illuminates your subject.
  • Can range from academic disciplines ("behavioral economics", "quantum physics")
  • Cultural frameworks ("indigenous knowledge systems", "the hoi-polloi")
  • Professional viewpoints ("an IO Psychologist", "an expert in the field of X")
  • Philosophical approaches ("stoicism", "existentialism")
  • Political leanings ("an Independent", "a progressive")
  • Creative viewpoints ("a Victorian naturalist", "a science fiction author")
The perspective works as a constraint that paradoxically expands possibilities. By limiting how we can examine the subject, we force connections that conventional thinking misses. The more unexpected or orthogonal to your subject, the more potential for breakthrough insights. Remember: every word has a meaning and a purpose in your prompt.

Your Prompt

Examine {subject} through the lens of {perspective}.

Framework Explained

This prompt framework creates a structured pathway to insight by pairing conceptual elements in a powerful way. When the four elements combine—command, subject, connector, perspective—they establish a relationship and spark creative friction between concepts.

The formula forces precision while simultaneously opening up unexpected avenues for exploration. It consistently outperforms generic prompts by creating directed analytical paths leading to nuanced, targeted explanations.

Example Prompts

"Learn this today and you will be using it for years to come."