The missing layer in prompt engineering: thinking quality

I've seen countless prompting trends and prompt packs to use but most discussions around prompt engineering focus on one thing: getting better outputs Optimizing for better outputs often translates to: Better prompts More context More structure But lately, I’ve been wondering: What if we’re optimizing the wrong layer? Because the real question isn’t: “How do I get better answers from AI?” It’s: “Is AI actually improving how I think?” Because I’ve noticed something subtle: My output was improving