Pretending to know a lot about something is a common element of conversations, from pretending to have watched a movie your friends are discussing at a party to claiming insight on a complex economics issue during a high-stakes business meeting. Quick online searches for when you know the subject is coming up, but you don’t have time to actually learn it go back to before Google existed.
ChatGPT and other AI tools can add real depth to your claimed knowledge in a way that goes well beyond scanning some headlines after a keyword search. If you know it’s coming, you can use ChatGPT to confidently bluff your way through even extended discussions or particularly byzantine topics. You just need the right prompt.
Here are a few that could really come in handy the next time you’re hours away from a dinner party with people who think you’re a marine biologist named Art Vandelay.
Battle it out
One approach to sounding authoritative is to understand the battle lines within your given topic. Share your thoughts on the internal controversies that experts in your chosen topic, especially the more obscure ones, and you’ll seem like a real insider. You might not know what quantum physicists or literary translators fight about, but you can ask ChatGPT, “What do knowledgeable people in this field argue about that casual observers don’t even realize is controversial?”
The key to sounding like an insider isn’t knowing what everyone knows. It’s being able to say things like, “Well, that depends on which side of string theory’s validity you’re on,” or “Here’s a point of contention brought up about how preserving sentence structure can’t evoke the rhythm of the original and should be reimagined.”
Most people won’t expect you to explain all sides in detail, but they’ll see you know the fight exists.
Time traveler talk
Another sign of expertise is understanding not only the current beliefs of experts, but also how those beliefs have changed over time. You might have enough to comment on what’s happening today, but you can add a real gloss to your conversation if, beforehand, you ask ChatGPT, “What did experts used to believe about this subject 20 or 30 years ago that they mostly reject now?”
It doesn’t even have to be detailed; you just need to sound like someone who sees the long-term picture. For instance, say you want to impress someone who’s interested in, to choose a random example, urban planning.
You could ask ChatGPT about the evolution of pedestrianized city centers and wow your conversational partner with thoughts on how there used to be a strong emphasis on car access and retail parking, but now the focus is shifting toward shorter commutes and reclaiming public space.
Buried treasure
If you hope to appear a fountain of wisdom but dread getting into the nitty-gritty of a subject, raising some deeply obscure knowledge can be an ace in the hole. People who obsess over a subject, whether a filmmaker, a historical period, or wine-tasting, all have their favorite bits of trivia, the more obscure the better. If you have one in your back pocket too, you’ll be able to fit in with real experts or stand out as one among those who aren’t.
So before that film festival, historical reenactment, or night of wine barhopping, you could ask ChatGPT, “What’s something that people who are deeply into this topic fixate on or care about that casual observers don’t even notice?” The answer is likely not what you’d expect, which is the point.
True expertise, as anyone who’s ever fallen down a Wikipedia rabbit hole knows, is often hyper‑specific. It’s not just knowing that 18th-century violins are valuable. It’s knowing that some people only perform in certain venues where there are Baroque humidity conditions to ensure they have the authentic tension curve, or that a fountain pen might not be as valuable if it’s using an ebonite feed system.
The goal isn’t to deceive, usually. Rather, it’s about channeling the level of specificity that real experts bring, because specificity always sounds smarter. That’s why corporate speeches full of buzzwords sound like an hour where nothing is said.
And you don’t just sound clever using these prompt tricks. They can actually whet your appetite for real learning without denting your confidence. This isn’t about faking your way through life or bluffing your way into a panel at Davos. It’s about not letting circumstantial limits stop you from participating.
Yes, these could just be ways of fooling people into believing lies. But I think they help you build expertise, not just perform it. Once you’ve asked what the internal debates are, what changed over time, and what tiny bit of knowledge the greatest experts enjoy sharing, you might start to care about the topic enough to pursue real expertise.
If you do it often enough, you’re not faking knowledge; you actually have it.
