Lesson 2 of 8
The example ladder
6 min read
You've described exactly what you want and still get the wrong shape back. There's a move that skips describing altogether: instead of explaining the pattern, show it — one, two, a few finished examples — and let the AI copy it.
From telling to showing
Every prompt sits somewhere on a ladder. [Zero-shot](glossary://zero-shot) is what most people do — just a description, no examples. One-shot adds a single worked example. [Few-shot](glossary://few-shot) gives two or more. Each rung trades a little of your effort for a lot more control: the AI stops guessing the format and copies the pattern it can see in your examples.
Examples are a dial, not a switch. Zero-shot describes, one-shot shows once, few-shot shows several — and more clean examples means less guessing about the shape you want.
How many, and how clean
Two rules of thumb. First, you don't need many — around two to five usually does it; past a handful the gains fade. Second, the AI copies your examples faithfully, surface and all: if they're inconsistent, or their style doesn't match the real input, it imitates the wrong thing. Clean, on-pattern examples beat a pile of sloppy ones.
A few clean, consistent examples is the sweet spot. The AI imitates exactly what you show — including the flaws — so a mismatched or sloppy example teaches it the wrong pattern.
One example is one-shot, several is [few-shot](glossary://few-shot), none is [zero-shot](glossary://zero-shot). Same idea, dialled up or down: how many worked examples you hand over before the real task.
The gist
- —How many examples you show is a dial: zero-shot, one-shot, few-shot
- —A few clean examples — about two to five — usually beats a paragraph of rules
- —It copies faithfully, so a mismatched or sloppy example teaches the wrong pattern
You need every support ticket tagged in one exact set of categories, in a strict format. What's the most reliable prompt?
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