From the Tipseason ezine:
You ask AI a question. It gives you an answer.
You use that answer. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's mediocre. You never know which one you'll get.
Here's the problem. AI defaults to the first reasonable answer it finds.
Not the best answer. Just the first one that works.
There's a technique that fixes this. It's called Tree of Thought prompting.
You force AI to think through multiple approaches before picking the best one. Like having three experts debate instead of one person giving you their first thought.
The quality difference is massive.
How Tree of Thought Actually Works
Instead of asking AI for one answer, you ask it to:
- Generate 3 different approaches to solve your problem
- Evaluate each approach (pros and cons)
- Pick the best one and explain why
- Give you the final solution based on that approach
AI explores multiple paths. Considers tradeoffs. Then commits to the strongest option.
You get better results because AI did the thinking you would normally do manually.
There's a bit more to it than that, but I didn't want to copy the whole email