Let it think.
“Think step by step” used to be a trick. Many models now reason on their own. The skill is knowing when thinking helps, and asking to see it.
Standard models
Ask For The Working
For maths, logic or multi-part problems, ask it to work through the steps before giving the answer.
Reasoning models
Give Goals, Not Scripts
They already think before answering. Give the goal and the constraints, and skip micromanaging each step.
Either way
Make It Checkable
Ask it to list its assumptions and show key calculations, so you can spot where it went wrong.
Source: Anthropic ↗
Hard problem: let it think. Easy task: just ask.