Chapter 6intermediate
Precognition (Thinking Step by Step)
If someone woke you up and immediately started asking you several complicated questions that you had to respond to right away, how would you do? Probably not as good as if you were given time to think through your answer first.
Guess what? Claude is the same way.
Giving Claude time to think step by step sometimes makes Claude more accurate, particularly for complex tasks. However, thinking only counts when it's out loud. You cannot ask Claude to think but output only the answer - in this case, no thinking has actually occurred.
Examples
Example 1
User Prompt
Is this movie review sentiment positive or negative?
This movie blew my mind with its freshness and originality. In totally unrelated news, I have been living under a rock since the year 1900.Response
Response will be generated by the LLMExample 2
User Prompt
You are a savvy reader of movie reviews.Response
Response will be generated by the LLMExample 3
User Prompt
Is this review sentiment negative or positive? First write the best arguments for each side in <negative-argument> and <positive-argument> XML tags, then answer. This movie blew my mind with its freshness and originality. Unrelatedly, I have been living under a rock since 1900.
Response
Response will be generated by the LLMExample 4
User Prompt
Name a famous movie starring an actor who was born in the year 1956.Response
Response will be generated by the LLMExample 5
User Prompt
Name a famous movie starring an actor who was born in the year 1956. First brainstorm about some actors and their birth years in <brainstorm> tags, then give your answer.
Response
Response will be generated by the LLMPlayground
EditableTry modifying these prompts and sending them to your configured LLM provider.
Try it yourself
Try it yourself
Try it yourself
Try it yourself
Try it yourself