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Be More Ambitious
With AI

An Anthropic engineering manager's four kinds of AI ambition, his favorite prompt, and one prompt to use all four on your own work.

Felix Rieseberg works on Claude at Anthropic. He has led engineering for Claude.ai, Cowork and Claude Code Desktop. In October he published How to be more ambitious: A tutorial for humans with models.

His point: AI is great at some things and weak at others, and most people never find out what it can really do because they ask too little. Here are his four kinds of ambition, with an example for each.

The Four Kinds Of Ambition

01

Speed

The same work, in less time.

In his words, "the bread and butter for AI's economic value." Most of us already do this, so he skips past it. It's the floor, not the goal.

02

Altitude

Ask for the outcome, not the task.

"Going up in abstraction and considering the outcome rather than the individual task." Ask what you actually want to happen after the task is done. His example: instead of "make the quarterly review deck," ask "tell me what changed this quarter, why, and what we should do about it."

03

Depth

Do it the way a top expert would.

"Considering a task the way a field-leading expert would." Experts start from raw data, test their own assumptions, and use real tools. His example: "We believe churn is an onboarding problem. Try to reproduce that from the raw data."

04

Range

Bring in other fields.

"Drawing on multiple fields rather than just the one the task might need at the surface, using knowledge, tools, and techniques you normally wouldn't." My example: a marketing problem might need statistics, psychology and design, not just marketing.

His trick: turn the noun into a verb. "A deck" becomes "getting busy people to believe a story about cause and effect." Then ask which experts are good at that.

His Depth Prompt

This is the prompt Felix says often helps him. Paste it under any task you were about to give AI. It makes the AI tell you what a real expert would do first, then rewrites your ask.

Felix Rieseberg's Depth Prompt
I want a deeper version of this task, not a bigger one. Before rewriting it: (1) say what a top professional in this field would do here that I'm not asking for; (2) name the rawest material they would start from instead of what has already been digested for me; (3) name the specific methods and tools they would use; (4) say what, other than you or me, would show the result is right. Then rewrite my prompt to ask for exactly that.

Prompt by Felix Rieseberg, from his article.

Two Rules He Swears By
  1. Don't let AI grade its own work. He says that as of October 2026 he "implores" you to insist on outside checks. Real numbers, a small test, a customer's reaction. Ideally a tool the AI can run to check itself.
  2. Skip the role-play. Asking AI to "be a forensic accountant" mostly changes the voice, not the results. Ask it to do what that expert does, like test the numbers.
Use All Four At Once

I built this prompt from his four ideas. Paste in a task you're working on and it walks you through Speed, Altitude, Depth and Range, then hands back one upgraded prompt.

The Ambition Upgrade Prompt
I want to get more out of AI on a task I'm working on. Help me aim higher using four kinds of ambition: Speed, Altitude, Depth and Range. (These four ideas come from Felix Rieseberg at Anthropic.) My task: [paste what you were going to ask AI to do. If this is blank, ask me what the task is first.] STEP 1. Ask me up to 2 short questions, only if you need them. Good ones: "Who is this for, and what should happen after they see it?" and "What do you have to work with (files, numbers, notes)?" Then wait for my answers. If my task already answers these, skip to Step 2. STEP 2. Walk me through the four upgrades. For each one, write 2 to 4 plain sentences and one rewritten version of my ask. SPEED: How can I get the same result in less time? Point out steps you can do for me, or parts I can reuse next time. ALTITUDE: What is the real goal behind this task? Tell me what I probably want to happen after it's done. Rewrite my ask so it targets that outcome, not just the task. If this task comes back again and again, suggest a simple repeatable process so I don't start from scratch each time. DEPTH: How would the best expert in this field do it? Name what they would do that I didn't ask for, the raw material they would start from, and the methods or tools they would use. Then name one way to check the result that doesn't rely on you or me saying it looks good, like real numbers, a small test, or feedback from an actual customer. RANGE: What other fields could help? Turn my task into an action (for example, "a flyer" becomes "getting a busy neighbor to stop and act"). Then pick 2 or 3 fields that are good at that action, and say what each one adds. Use their methods. Do not role-play or write in character. STEP 3. Give me THE UPGRADED ASK: one clear prompt that combines the best parts of all four, ready to copy and use. Then list the 3 things I should gather before I run it. RULES: Use plain words and short sentences. Don't make up facts about my business. If you need something, ask me or tell me to add it. Don't grade your own work. Tell me how to check it instead.
  1. Use it once. Paste the Ambition Upgrade Prompt into a new chat in Claude or ChatGPT, fill in the [brackets], and send. It asks up to 2 questions, then gives you four upgrades and one final ask.
  2. Keep it. In Claude, make a Project, click Set project instructions, paste it in and save. Every chat in that Project starts with it. In ChatGPT, do the same with a Project’s instructions.

Start with one thing on your list this week. Ask yourself: could I aim higher, go deeper, or bring in another field?