How to get the most out of ChatGPT?

Nicolas MARTIN
Nerd For Tech
Published in
9 min readDec 11, 2022

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ChatGPT is finally here and it’s bringing major benefits to a ton of different domains! Despite all the amazing things it can do, though, not many people know how to use it to its full potential. That’s why I’ve put together this list of tips to help you get the most out of ChatGPT!

Photo by Héctor J. Rivas on Unsplash

The clearer you are, the better the results

ChatGPT is an amazing tool that has been carefully designed to provide clear and concise answers to any question you might have! Even if your question is complex and detailed, ChatGPT is able to deliver a well-structured and informative response. And if you’re looking to tackle even tougher challenges, ChatGPT can help you break down your problem into smaller, more manageable pieces. This way, you can easily get the guidance and support you need to make progress and find solutions. All in all, ChatGPT is an incredible resource that can help you tackle any problem with confidence and ease!

If the question is very complex, you always get very good tips

ChatGPT probably has a limited amount of words for each answer, it cannot solve any very complex problems with full details.

However, it has a very good knowledge of how to solve them, which is much better than most humans can do!

I remember a complex Ph.D. problem that was almost impossible to solve about the trajectory calculation of a man jumping with a pogo stick on the moon, from the terrestrial reference. Here is the ChatGPT answer…

Question: What is the trajectory formula of a man jumping on the moon with a pogo stick from the North Pole to the South Pole, from the terrestrial reference?

Answer: It is difficult to provide a precise formula for the trajectory of a man using a pogo stick to move from the north to the south pole of the moon, as the trajectory would depend on many factors that are difficult to accurately model and predict. Some of the key factors that would affect the trajectory include the initial velocity and direction of the jump, the strength and duration of the pogo action, the gravitational force acting on the man and the pogo stick, and the surface conditions and obstacles on the moon.

To determine the trajectory of the man and the pogo stick, you would need to consider the laws of motion and the principles of classical mechanics, including Newton’s laws of motion, the conservation of energy and momentum, and the equations of motion for a body moving in a gravitational field. You would also need to take into account the properties of the pogo stick, such as its mass, stiffness, and damping characteristics, as well as the characteristics of the man, such as his mass, height, and jumping ability.

Given the complexity and uncertainty of the problem, it is unlikely that a single formula could accurately describe the trajectory of the man and the pogo stick. Instead, you would need to develop a detailed mathematical model that accounts for all of the relevant factors, and use that model to simulate the motion of the man and the pogo stick over time. This would require a significant amount of mathematical and computational work, and it would be challenging to obtain reliable and accurate results. Overall, while it’s interesting to consider the trajectory of a man using a pogo stick on the moon, it’s important to recognize the many challenges and limitations involved in such a scenario.

As you can see, ChatGPT has framed the problem correctly, providing the main steps to solve it. Then, you can ask ChatGPT for specific points of the previous answer: it will also develop them in a clear and concise way.

Photo by Hasmik Ghazaryan Olson on Unsplash

You can improve your messages or emails

Many people like me are not good at marketing, and can’t present things in a very convincing way.

ChatGPT is a great tool to change a common text to the most enthusiastic one, or the saddest one…

Question: Write this text in an enthusiastic way: “Bob entered a shop and bought chewing gums. He remembered his childhood with his parents. Then he drove back to his house.”

Answer: “Bob excitedly entered the shop and quickly grabbed some delicious chewing gums! As he chewed, he fondly remembered his childhood with his loving parents. After reliving those sweet memories, he hopped in his car and eagerly drove back to his cozy home.”

Question: Write this text in a very sad way: “Bob entered a shop and bought chewing gums. He remembered his childhood with his parents. Then he drove back to his house.”

Answer: “Bob reluctantly entered the shop and hesitantly bought some depressing chewing gums. As he chewed, he miserably remembered his childhood with his distant parents. After dwelling on those painful memories, he dejectedly drove back to his lonely house.”

By the way, the first lines of this article have been embellished with ChatGPT. Can you see how powerful it is?

You can ask any question at the right level of knowledge

No matter how expert we are, we don’t know many other fields and we need different levels of understanding when we want to learn new things.

ChatGPT can answer a question at a doctorate or a 6-year-old children’s level, which is a great capability!

Question: How to explain the Shannon Entropy to a 6-year-old child?

ChatGPT: Shannon entropy is a measure of the amount of uncertainty or randomness in a system. A simple way to explain it to a child is to use an analogy. For example, you could say that the Shannon entropy is like a puzzle with many pieces. The more pieces there are and the more mixed up they are, the harder it is to put the puzzle together and figure out what it is supposed to look like. In the same way, the more uncertainty there is in a system, the harder it is to predict what will happen next. Does that help?

Question: How to explain the Shannon Entropy to a Ph.D.?

To explain the Shannon entropy to someone with a Ph.D., you can start by providing a formal definition of the concept. The Shannon entropy is a measure of the uncertainty or randomness in a system, mathematically defined as the average amount of information required to encode the system’s state. This measure is useful in a variety of contexts, such as data compression, information theory, and cryptography.

You can then provide some examples of how the Shannon entropy can be calculated and applied in different scenarios. For example, you could explain how the entropy of a system can be determined by analyzing the probabilities of different states, and how this information can be used to compress data or to encode messages in a way that is resistant to tampering or unauthorized access.

Additionally, you can discuss some of the limitations and assumptions of the Shannon entropy, such as its reliance on the concept of a “fair” probability distribution, and its inability to capture certain types of correlations or dependencies between variables. Overall, the goal is to provide a clear and rigorous explanation of the Shannon entropy that will be understandable and relevant to someone with a PhD-level education.

You can also try with many professions: it could find good analogies to make complex things understandable based on everyone’s knowledge!

By the way, many professions can be managed by ChatGPT, from a personal coach to a math teacher. Here is a very interesting list:

https://github.com/f/awesome-chatgpt-prompts

Photo by Gabriel Heinzer on Unsplash

You can solve programming problems easily

One of the most useful usages of ChatGPT is programming.

Are you blocked coding something? Do you need some quick code to sort a list or plot an XY graph?

ChatGPT is probably the fastest solution.

Question: What is the fastest way to sort a random list of 1000 elements in Python?

Answer: To sort a random list of 1000 elements in Python, you can use the sorted() function, which provides a fast and efficient way to sort a list of elements. The sorted() function uses a comparison-based sorting algorithm, which has an average time complexity of O(n log n), where n is the number of elements in the list. This means that the sorted() function is able to sort a list of 1000 elements in a relatively short amount of time, even for large and complex lists.

Here is an example of how you can use the sorted() function to sort a random list of 1000 elements in Python:

# Import the random module

import random

# Generate a random list of 1000 elements

random_list = [random.randint(0, 1000) for _ in range(1000)]

# Sort the list using the sorted() function

sorted_list = sorted(random_list)

# Print the sorted list

print(sorted_list)

Nevertheless, you have to be sometimes careful as ChatGPT could have some mistakes when dealing with complex programming issues. Remember that this is just the first version, but still impressive.

You can use maths formulas, even in text format

It is often difficult to have good results from search engines when we have to deal with mathematics or physics formulas.

ChatGPT is not only able to understand formulas in LaTex format, but also in raw text format.

Question: What do these formulas refer to? (1) div D = ρ, (2) div B = 0, (3) curl E = -dB/dt, and (4) curl H = dD/dt + J

Answer: These formulas refer to four fundamental relationships in electromagnetism, which are known as Maxwell’s equations. These equations describe the behavior of electric and magnetic fields, and they are widely used in many areas of physics, engineering, and technology.

The first formula, div D = ρ, states that the divergence of the electric displacement field, denoted by D, is equal to the charge density, denoted by ρ. This equation shows that the electric displacement field is determined by the distribution of electric charge in a given region.

The second formula, div B = 0, states that the divergence of the magnetic field, denoted by B, is equal to zero. This equation shows that the magnetic field is a solenoidal vector field, which means that it has no sources or sinks, and it is completely determined by its circulation around closed loops.

The third formula, curl E = -dB/dt, states that the curl of the electric field, denoted by E, is equal to the negative time derivative of the magnetic field, denoted by dB/dt. This equation shows that the electric field is generated by the time-varying magnetic field, and it is responsible for the electromagnetic induction that produces electric currents in conductors.

The fourth formula, curl H = dD/dt + J, states that the curl of the magnetic field intensity, denoted by H, is equal to the time derivative of the electric displacement field, denoted by dD/dt, plus the electric current density, denoted by J. This equation shows that the magnetic field intensity is generated by the time-varying electric displacement field and the electric current density, and it is responsible for the electromagnetic forces that act on charged particles.

Overall, these four formulas are fundamental equations in electromagnetism, and they provide important insights into the behavior of electric and magnetic fields in different situations. They are widely used in many applications, such as the design of electrical circuits and devices, the analysis of electromagnetic waves and radiation, and the study of electromagnetic phenomena in nature.

ChatGPT has made great reverse engineering with math formulas in raw text. Of course, you can ask to solve any mathematical problem using text, which is a huge step ahead in problem-solving.

Conclusion

ChatGPT is revolutionary and will boost many jobs and many daily life activities.

These are just a few tips and there are plenty of others that will come from other sources and with time. Feel free to share them in the comments.

Even if it is not perfect yet, it has already great results that will undoubtfully improve with time.

Don’t ask Google, ask ChatGPT!

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Nicolas MARTIN
Nerd For Tech

Full Stack Data Scientist. Topics: Deep learning, mathematics, manufacturing engineering, history. Creator of https://www.airoomstyles.com