Advanced Course: Advanced Prompting · 1 min read
Reason deeper – chain-of-thought and advanced reasoning patterns
Visible reasoning, few-shot, perspectives, and breaking down complex questions.
Section 4: Reason deeper – chain-of-thought and more techniques
Section titled “Section 4: Reason deeper – chain-of-thought and more techniques”Learning objectives
- Activate chain-of-thought when multi-step reasoning needs to be auditable
- Use few-shot when descriptions of tone/structure fall short
- Choose perspective, step-back, and decomposition for complex decisions
Chain-of-thought – think out loud
Ask for step-by-step reasoning before a conclusion when:
- there are multiple factors to weigh
- you need to audit the logic
- a wrong conclusion is costly
Phrases that often work: “Think step by step”, “Show your reasoning before the conclusion”, “Identify the factors, assess each one, then give your recommendation”.
Few-shot – show the pattern
Instead of just “respond in format X” you can show a short filled-in template:
Example:Issue: Supplier wants to shorten payment terms from 30 to 10 days.Assessment: Below our standard of 30 days and a strain on our cash flow.Recommendation: Hold at 30 days, or accept 20 in exchange for a discount.This controls tone, structure, and level of detail in ways that are hard to describe in a single sentence.
More tools in the toolbox
- Perspective analysis: “Analyze from economic, legal, and operational perspectives before summarizing.”
- Step-back: start with a broader background question, then the specific one.
- Self-ask / decomposition: ask the model to list sub-questions and answer them one by one for broad questions.
No technique is “always best” – task and model determine it. Test.
Try it yourself
Section titled “Try it yourself”Ask a complex work question without and with the sentence: “Describe your reasoning step by step before the conclusion.” What difference do you notice?
Summary
Section titled “Summary”- CoT → auditable reasoning.
- Few-shot → controls format and nuances that are hard to describe.
- Perspective / step-back / decomposition → structure for complexity.
Test your knowledge
Question 1 of 2
What is the main purpose of chain-of-thought (step-by-step) prompting?