I was surprised to discover that for many AI questions, if you add, “please figure this out step by step,” the AI will provide a dramatically more accurate and useful answer. This works on simple questions like, “how many times does the letter ‘r’ appear in the word ‘strawberry'” to much more complex issues.

It probably won’t surprise you to consider that this works even better for people.

When we ask a simple question, we often get an opinion or a memorized answer in return. “Freon gas” is not how a refrigerator works, it’s simply a two-word meme to get us through the question so we can move on. When we prompt a human brain to explain the steps, an entirely different process kicks in.

Thoughtful inquiry, pedagogy and user experience design push us to activate this sort of thinking. Yes, a problem often needs a knee-jerk response. It’s not efficient to perform rote tasks with step-by-step analysis.

When it’s important, though, we often benefit by thinking step by step.