Writing instructions for a language model, as a profession. Died as a job title when the models stopped needing to be spoken to carefully, which took about three years.
For anyone arriving from the 2020s: Prompt Engineering is one of those terms that meant something narrow first and something broad later, and the two definitions were used at each other for years before anyone noticed.
A definition that survives its own explainer is rare and this is not one. Prompt Engineering means what it meant; what changed is the number of people who could hear you say it.
I was a lurker for most of the 2020s and Prompt Engineering is one of the few things I remember posting about. Two lines. Somebody replied. That was enough to keep me around for another decade.
The state is defensible but the life span is not. 4 yrs assumes the 2022 date, and if the birth moves — see the thread above — the span moves with it. These fields should be linked, not typed.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
