Cargo Cult Prompting

ELI5 — The Vibe Check

Cargo cult prompting is the same as prompt cargo cult — copying techniques without understanding when they work. You add 'I will tip you $200' to every prompt because some paper said it helped once. On a frontier model in 2026? Probably doesn't.

Real Talk

Cargo cult prompting is the uncritical inheritance of prompt techniques across models, tasks, and generations without validation. Techniques that worked on GPT-3.5 often don't transfer to Claude Opus 4.7 or Gemini 2.5. Modern prompt engineering relies on evals specific to your model, task, and data — not inherited wisdom.

When You'll Hear This

"That's cargo cult prompting — it worked in 2023, not now." / "Every prompt technique should be eval-validated, not copy-pasted."