Role and Perspective
A Perspective Sets the Register
Telling the model what point of view to write from is one of the cheapest upgrades available. Not because there is a magic persona that unlocks hidden ability, but because a perspective carries a whole bundle of assumptions with it: vocabulary, level of detail, what counts as important, what gets skipped. "Explain compound interest" gets you a textbook paragraph. "Explain compound interest the way a financial adviser would explain it to a client who is nervous about money and has never invested" gets you a different vocabulary, a slower pace, and worked numbers instead of a formula. The perspective did not add knowledge. It selected which parts of a very general capability to bring forward.
- Weak: "Explain compound interest"
- Strong: "Explain compound interest as a financial adviser would to a nervous first-time investor — use a worked example with real numbers, no formulas"
- Perspective changes vocabulary, pace and what gets treated as important
- It does not add expertise the model lacks — do not expect a title to make it accurate
Reader Perspective Beats Writer Perspective
Most people reach for "act as an expert" and stop there. Specifying the reader is usually more powerful, because the reader determines what actually needs to be on the page. "You are a senior lawyer" gives you dense, hedged prose. "Explain this contract clause to a small business owner who has never had a lawyer and needs to know if they can sign it today" gives you plain language, the actual risk, and a recommendation. When you can, name both: the voice writing and the person reading. And be honest about the reader's starting point — saying "assume they know nothing about the technical side but are commercially sharp" prevents both a patronising answer and an impenetrable one.
- Name the reader as precisely as the writer — the reader shapes content, the writer shapes tone
- State what the reader already knows and what they will do with the answer
- "They are smart but new to this field" is a very effective single line
- Where relevant, name the reader's worry: what are they actually afraid of getting wrong?
Adversarial Perspectives Are Underused
The most valuable perspective is often not a helpful expert but a hostile one. "Review my proposal" produces polite, balanced feedback that makes you feel fine and changes nothing. "You are the client's CFO. You did not want this project and you are looking for reasons to reject it. Give me your three strongest objections in the order you would raise them" produces something you can actually prepare against. The same trick works everywhere: the reviewer who will reject your paper, the sceptic in the audience, the support agent who has to handle the complaint your email will cause. Asking for the attack is a far better test of your work than asking for an opinion.
- Weak: "What do you think of this proposal?"
- Strong: "You are the budget holder looking for a reason to say no. Give your three strongest objections, ranked."
- Adversarial framing surfaces problems that polite review never reaches
- Pair it: get the attack first, then ask for the strongest defence of each point
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