Free sample
Seven free tips from 99 Things Your AI Can Do That You Have Never Asked It To
Seven of the 99 tips, in full and exactly as they appear in the book: what to do, why it works, and a prompt you can copy. They are the same seven the free PDF sample gives away.
The whole guide is 125 pages with every tip traced to a source you can check, written for India, and ₹199 as an instant download.
From the CODKRAFTERS guide · Edition 1 · September 2026
Tip 1 of 99 · Everyone
Stop telling it to “think step by step”
- Do this
- On any model that shows its thinking, delete the phrase. State the goal and the constraints, nothing about how to reason. Keep it only for the fast, cheap models.
- Why it works
- Reasoning is now trained into these models. Scripting an external path competes with the internal one, and forces padding that opens fresh mistakes.
- ChatGPT Thinking
- Claude
- Gemini
Goal: [what you want]. Constraints: [budget, length, audience, deadline]. Give me your best answer. Do not explain your process unless I ask.
Tip 2 of 99 · Everyone
When it goes wrong twice, start over
- Do this
- Do not keep correcting a chat that has drifted. Open a new one and paste a single message containing everything you have learned about what you actually want.
- Why it works
- Across fifteen models, answers in a long back-and-forth were measured about 39% worse than the same question asked once, cleanly. They latch onto an early wrong assumption and never let go.
- Every assistant
- Free tier works
Here is the full picture in one go: [goal]. [Everything you already know]. [What you have ruled out and why]. Give me your best single answer.
Tip 22 of 99 · Everyone
Give it permission to say “I don't know”
- Do this
- Add the permission explicitly, every time accuracy matters. Without it, silence is not an option it considers available.
- Why it works
- It is built to always produce something, because a confident guess scores better than an admission of ignorance. Saying you would rather have the gap changes the behaviour.
- Every assistant
- Free tier works
If you do not know, say “I don't know”. Do not guess and do not fill gaps with something that sounds right. I would rather have a short answer than a complete one.
Tip 30 of 99 · Studying
Photograph your notes and ask it to find the holes
- Do this
- Photograph every page of a term's handwritten notes and upload the lot. Ask for a study guide, and specifically for the places your notes are incomplete or contradict themselves.
- Why it works
- The gaps are the point. Notes written in a hurry have holes in exactly the places you were struggling to keep up, which is where the marks go.
- Gemini
- Free tier works
These are photos of my handwritten notes. Build a study guide from them. Separately, list every place where my notes are incomplete, contradict each other, or look copied down wrong.
Tip 67 of 99 · At work
Ask for the formula, never the answer
- Do this
- Describe what you want in plain English and ask for the spreadsheet formula. Paste it in and let the spreadsheet calculate. Also ask what would break it.
- Why it works
- It genuinely cannot be trusted with arithmetic, and errors climb sharply with longer numbers. The spreadsheet can. Use each for what it is good at.
- Every assistant
- Free tier works
Column A has dates, column D amounts, column F vendor. Give me a formula for total spend per vendor in the last 90 days — and tell me what breaks if the dates are stored as text.
Tip 83 of 99 · Where it goes wrong
“Are you sure?” is the weakest check
- Do this
- Never verify by challenging the same chat. Ask the identical question in a brand new chat, or ask a different assistant. If the two disagree, trust neither.
- Why it works
- These models are trained to please you. Pushed, they abandon correct answers to agree with you — so challenging one often turns a right answer wrong.
- Every assistant
- Free tier works
Answer this on its own, with no memory of any earlier conversation: [paste the exact question]. If you are not confident, say so plainly instead of guessing.
Tip 99 of 99 · Where it goes wrong
“Digital arrest” does not exist
- Do this
- No Indian agency arrests anyone over a video call, keeps them on camera, or asks for money into a verification account. End the call. Report it on 1930.
- Why it works
- If money has gone, the first hour decides whether it can be stopped, so the order below matters more than getting the paperwork right on the first attempt.
- 1930
- cybercrime.gov.in
In the first hour
- Call 1930, the national cyber-fraud helpline
- File the complaint at cybercrime.gov.in
- Tell your bank to block the card or UPI
Do this part today, not on the day it happens: save 1930 in your phone, and tell the oldest person in your family what this scam looks like.
What the other 92 cover
The book is in seven parts, named for what you are doing rather than who you are:
Everyone · 22 tips
Twenty-two habits that change what you get back, no matter what you use it for. Several of these contradict the advice you have probably been given.
Studying · 14 tips
School, college, or an entrance exam. The theme running through these: stop asking it for answers and start making it find the holes in what you know.
Applications and interviews · 12 tips
Applications, interviews and the salary conversation. The rule underneath all twelve: it can sharpen your material, but the moment it invents any of it, you have lost.
Running a business · 16 tips
Bills, quotations, reviews, customers and the paperwork. Written for a shop, a clinic, an agency or a workshop — not for a company with an IT department.
At work · 12 tips
Meetings, documents, spreadsheets, decks and email. Twelve things that give you back an hour without producing writing that announces itself as machine-made.
Already out of date · 6 tips
Every one of these was a popular tip within the last year. Every one of them has since been discontinued, replaced or disproved. If an article recommends them, it was not checked.
Where it goes wrong · 17 tips
The part free advice leaves out. What it invents, what it leaks, what it is genuinely bad at, and what Indian law now expects of you. Read this section even if you skip the rest.