The Prompt Is an Argument

The prior piece made a narrow claim. The prompt is the record, because a system can only act on what reaches it. Intent that stays in your head does not govern anything. Context that never reaches the model does not constrain anything. Purpose that is not in the prompt, the retrieved material, the tools, the policies, or the examples is not part of the decision environment. If you accept that, the next question is unavoidable. What kind of record should a good prompt be? For goal-oriented work, it should be an argument. More precisely, it should be enthymematic, an argument that leaves its obvious premise unstated for the audience to supply. The form is Aristotle’s. He called the enthymeme the body of proof, the strongest of rhetorical proofs, a kind of syllogism with a premise left out. Its strength comes from the omission. Stating what the audience already accepts is tedious, while assuming the right premise makes the conclusion feel almost self-evident. That power holds on one…