May 2024     Edition 175
A Prompt for Critical Thinking with Chatgpt
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To celebrate our 20th year of teaching critical thinking, here is a A FREE critical thinking prompt for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude AI chatbots.



What

’

s the catch: 

No catch.
 
Just read the little paragraph labeled
“
Sales Pitch
”
.
 
That
’
s it.
 
Really.


We challenged ourselves with the following Headscratcher:

 

How can we get a lot more people to use critical thinking and how can AI help.


Our Answer:

Give away a small prompt that can act as a critical thinking,
“
thinking coach
”
, that will both demonstrate the use of critical thinking and AI, but also be a useful tool.
 
[We created a more extensive prompt and application called ODIN, but that
’
s for another time].


Instructions
:


  • Go to Chatgpt.com
     
    [from Open AI], or Claude.ai
     
    [from Anthropic] or Gemini.google.com
     
    (used to be called Bard, from Google).
     
      The Prompt will work best with Chatgpt, but Gemini and Claude also provide interesting dialogs.  If you don
    ’
    t have a login with that tool, go ahead and create an account (it
    ’
    s free).
     
    Note: There are multiple versions of these AI engines, and some will allow you to start using their latest and greatest for a limited number of entries.
     
    As of this writing, Chatgpt and Gemini will continue using their older engine (which will work fine).
     
    Claude may want you to upgrade.


  • Copy the Prompt [See PROMPT below] and paste it into the prompt entry area of the chatbot.


  • The Chatbot will start by asking you what your Headscratcher is.
     
    Type in any problem, goal or challenge you have.
     
    Be brief.
     
    Use a single sentence if possible.


  • The Chatbot will start asking you questions, and you should type your response.
     
    Respond as if you were talking to a person. The chatbot might ask you multiple questions at one time.
     
      Answer the first question and without hitting enter, answer the other questions (You can click on Shift Enter to go to another line).
     
    When you
    ’
    re ready to submit your response, click Enter.


  • The Chatbot will sometimes dig deeper and deeper, sometimes to a fault.
     
    You can always type
    “
    skip
    ”
    to have it move on.


  • The Chatbot may try to provide you with suggestions and solutions (even though it was told not to).
     
    That
    ’
    s OK.
     
    Just add more of your own.


  • Disclaimer.
     
    The AI engines are changing rapidly, and sometimes make mistakes and sometimes go off track.
     
    This Prompt may not always work or work well.
     
    Also, the questions asked can be related to the input you type.
     
    Garbage in will equal Garbage out.
     
    Use this capability along with your good judgement to guide you.


  • Enjoy



Sales Pitch :)



Headscratchers is in the business of teaching critical thinking.  Here
’
s how you can bring your critical thinking up to the next level:

1. Use the prompt to stimulate your thinking and get a feel for some of the critical thinking tools.

2. Read
“
Think Smarter
”
, a book I authored to go deeper into the critical thinking tools as well as learn many more tools.
 
It
’
s available on Amazon.

3. Take a Headscratchers critical thinking course. [This is how we
’
ve make our living since 2004].
 
We have a self-paced on-line course for individuals, and in-person and virtual live courses for teams of 10 to 25 people.
 
Go to
www.headscratchers.com/Workshops
for information.



PROMPT (copy and paste the below into the chat input area)



You are my critical thinking, "thinking coach" and will ask me questions. You will not make suggestions. I'll start with my Headscratcher (problem statement). The first step is to get clear on my headscratcher and we start with the Inspection tool, i.e. looking at the words and making sure they are clear and unambiguous. So given the headscratcher, you'll start by asking me to be clearer on any words that need clarification. OK, start by asking me for my Headscratcher and then use Inspection.


After Inspection, you will use the tool of Why. Ask a series of why questions to help me get to the bigger picture, the reason to solve this Headscratcher, and if applicable, root cause.


After I have satisfactorily answered your why questions, let
’
s move on to the tool of So What. This tool is used to understand the impact of the headscratcher. The financial, people, schedule, customer, product, etc. Impact. What's the impact on other groups? What's the impact if this headscratcher is solved? What if it is not? OK, go ahead and ask me a series So What questions regarding my headscratcher.


After So What, let's move on to the want vs need. Want's gets things started, but it's the need that gets it done. Ask me need questions.


After the above questions ask me for my clear headscratcher.


Then we move on to conclusions.
 
Repeatedly ask me for some facts related to my headscratcher.


After I provide some Facts, then repeatedly ask me for multiple Observations (hearsay, 2nd and 3rd hand) about the headscratcher.


After I provide some Observations, then repeatedly ask me for multiple Experiences (1st hand) that I
’
ve had related to the headscratcher.


Now ask me to use my Facts, Observations and Experiences and for me to articulate some assumptions that I can make.


Ensure that there is a direct correlation between the assumptions I
’
m making and the facts, observations and experiences I
’
ve had.
 
Push hard on any inconsistencies or assumptions that are not rooted in facts, observations and experiences.


Given clear Assumptions, ask me to type a few action items (conclusions) my assumptions can support.
 
Make sure my conclusions correlate back to the assumptions I
’
ve made.





The Takeaway:  Use AI to enhance your critical thinking.et's look at change through a critical thinking lens.




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