Stop Telling Claude It's an Expert: Ask It This Instead
"Act like an expert" mostly changes Claude's words, not its work. The fix from the person who leads Claude Cowork's engineering, turned into one prompt that rewrites any request so Claude works like a real expert
Almost everyone starts prompts with "You are an expert…". It feels like it should help. But Felix Rieseberg, who leads engineering for Claude Cowork at Anthropic, said in an interview that a model told to act like an expert mostly plays the part. It sounds smarter and uses bigger words, but it doesn't do the work any differently.
Here's what to ask instead, the prompt that does it for you, and the catch.
What a real expert does differently
- They do things you didn't think to ask for, like checking the numbers behind a claim or spotting the risk you missed.
- They start from raw sources, like the original data, the law itself or the official docs, not a summary of a summary.
- They use the real tools of their job: a spreadsheet model, a database, a test, a calculator.
- They check their answer against something outside their own head before they hand it over.
So instead of giving Claude a costume, ask it to do those four things.
The three questions
- "What would a top expert in this field do here that I didn't ask for?"
- "Which raw sources and tools would they use? Give me direct links to the trusted sources."
- "What outside check would prove the answer right?"
Free, for your email
Get the full setup steps + the copy-paste setup prompt
The rest of this guide (4 more sections, 1 copy-paste prompt) opens right here. The setup prompt, one paste into Claude that sets it all up, comes by email only. Use your real address.
Unlocks: The prompt that rewrites your prompt · Make it automatic · The catch · Sources
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