What NOT to Do

Sometimes telling AI what to avoid is as important as what to do. Negative prompting prevents common failure modes and unwanted outputs.

The Power of "Don't"

Common Things to Exclude

Tone Problems

Content Problems

Format Problems

Style Problems

Exercise: Add Negative Constraints

Anti-Pattern Lists

Preventing Common AI Failures

Over-Helpfulness

Excessive Caveats

Verbose Padding

Exercise: Prevent AI Verbosity

Balanced Negative Prompting

Don't go overboard - too many "don'ts" can:

• Confuse priorities
• Make the AI overly cautious
• Leave unclear what TO do

Practice: Negative Prompt Design

Knowing what to exclude is half of writing great prompts.