What makes a good guide
A good guide is something you can reuse to teach the same topic again and again.
1) Pick a specific subject
Choose a narrow, concrete topic.
Example: If someone asked you to teach them Next.js, do not write “Next.js overview”. Write down the exact thing you are about to explain.
2) Dump your raw thoughts first
Write the messy version:
- Key points you want to cover
- Snippets, links, docs, references
- Gotchas and common mistakes
The goal is to give the AI (and your future self) enough material to work with.
3) Add context and ask the AI to polish
Give the AI the context it needs (see the prompting guide):
- Who is the guide for (level, role, prerequisites)
- What the outcome should be
- Any constraints (our stack, internal conventions)
You can also ask the AI to fetch additional sources, but keep an eye on quality.
4) Review carefully
AI can and will hallucinate.
It is better to have bad formatting with correct information than beautiful formatting with incorrect information.
5) Share and reuse
When you need to teach someone the same thing again, share the guide.
If it is broadly useful, we can turn it into a blog post. Big leverage for the team.