Getting Specific Outcomes by Remixing

The Genie

Imagine that every time you prompt Astra, you are making a wish from a very literal genie.

The problem, as you know, is that genies don’t always grant the wish you were imagining, they grant the wish you asked for.

Luckily for you, Astra is a smart, benevolent genie, and tries to interpret you correctly and even read between the lines!

Unfortunately for you, Astra is a pretty average genie, and tends to give you the AVERAGE useful interpretation of your request, given the context.

So this creates a problem: if you give any vagueness to the genie, you will get an AVERAGE outcome for every part of the request which is left vague (including implementation details).

Specification in design is the art of communicating exactly what you want, such that there are no unwanted ambiguities, nothing important left vague, and the Genie grants your wish! The exact wish you had, actually!

Compare these 4 prompts

What will the Genie give you in each case?

Results

Practice Remixing

Copy a specific thing people already love

The Lesson: you can get incredibly specific outcomes from AI agents. The easiest way to do that is to copy something that already exists.

The Lesson: Everything is a remix. It’s often faster and better to stop “trying to be original”, and instead to take a great idea and make it even better! Or to take two ideas that have never been combined before, and combine them.

Copy or remix a prompt that you really like

• Explore GPT-6 Astra prompts on Ottermind.
• Or try a very impressive style of prompt called a Gauntlet Loop, here is a collection of projects made using it.

The Lesson: copying other people’s prompts is a great way to explore what the AI models are capable of with a single prompt. This can give you a rough idea of how much might be possible if you worked on a project for a month or two.

Free Play

Working on your own, remix something you would love to have made yourself. After successfully remixing it with your agent, try adding something that is uniquely yours!

It could be anything! Music, software, apps, tools, a business, a painting. Agents can remix a lot of styles these days.

Advanced Tips

Use Mobbin (or a free alternative).