solo-scientist

Prompt 1: Literature Synthesis

Use this to bootstrap your understanding of a new or unfamiliar research area.

Synthesize the current state of research on [TOPIC]. Cover:

(a) The standard model or consensus view — what most researchers in this
    field agree on.
(b) 3-5 key competing approaches or alternative frameworks, with their
    main proponents and where they differ from the consensus.
(c) Open problems — what questions remain unresolved, and why they've
    been hard to answer.
(d) What a new contribution would need to address — what would it take
    for a paper in this area to be considered significant?

Cite specific papers with authors and years. Flag anything you're
uncertain about with [UNCERTAIN]. For each cited paper, indicate
whether it's a review, a landmark result, or a recent development.

When to Use

• Before starting a project in a field you don’t know deeply
• When writing an introduction or related work section
• To identify gaps your work could fill

What to Watch For

• LLMs may invent plausible-sounding citations. Verify every reference.
• The LLM’s “consensus view” may be 2-3 years out of date.
• Use this as a starting point, then follow the cited papers yourself.