What Makes a Good Prompt "Good"?

For the first few months I used AI, my prompts looked like Google searches. Short, vague, and hoping the machine would figure out what I meant. "Write me a marketing email." "Explain this code." "Help me with my resume." The results were fine. Generic, but fine. I assumed that was just what AI was capable of. Then I started being specific, and the difference was dramatic. Same tool, completely different output. The AI didn't get smarter. I got better at talking to it.