THE SHOW YOUR WORK PATTERN

Ask Claude to show its work. Better answers, easier to catch errors, easier to learn from. The pattern that turns "trust the AI" into "verify the AI." One sentence to add to any prompt.

THE PATTERN

Add this to any prompt:

Show your work. Walk me through your reasoning step by step before giving the final answer.

That's it. That's the skill.

WHY IT WORKS

Three things happen when Claude shows its work:

1. The answer gets better. AI reasoning improves when forced to be explicit. (Researchers call this "chain of thought" — Day 17 covers it more.)

2. You can spot errors. If Claude's reasoning has a wrong assumption, you'll see it. Without showing work, you'd just see the final answer and not know it was based on something wrong.

3. You learn the framework. Watching Claude reason teaches you how to think about similar problems yourself.

WHEN TO USE IT

Use "show your work" for:

Math / calculation
Decisions with multiple factors
Recommendations (why this, not that)
Research questions where reasoning matters
Anywhere you'd want to verify the conclusion

DON'T use it for:

Quick lookups ("what time is it in Tokyo")
Creative writing (it makes prose feel academic)
Yes/no questions (overkill)

EXAMPLES

MATH

Calculate my quarterly tax estimate. YTD income $48,000, expenses $11,200, single, no W-2.

Show your work. Walk through each calculation step.

You'll see line-by-line math. If something's wrong (deduction missed, bracket wrong), you'll spot it.

DECISION

Should I take the marketing director role at Company A ($110k, fully remote) or stay at Company B (Director, $95k, hybrid 3 days/week)?

Show your work. Score each against my priorities (career growth, family time, financial stability) before recommending.

You'll see the scoring. You can disagree with weights or scores. You stay in control.

RESEARCH

What's the best free task manager for someone managing 1 family + 1 freelance business?

Show your work. Walk through the criteria you're using before recommending.

You'll see what criteria matter. You can challenge them ("I don't care about offline mode — re-rank").

ADVANCED VERSION

Show your work in 3 steps:
1. Restate what I'm asking
2. List the assumptions you're making
3. Walk through your reasoning
4. Give the answer

Flag any assumption you're not sure about.

This catches even more — you'll often discover Claude was solving the WRONG problem because it misread your question.

3 THINGS YOU CAN'T SKIP

1. Read the work, not just the answer. The whole point is verification. If you skip to the conclusion, you've wasted the prompt.

2. Push back when reasoning is wrong. "Step 2's assumption is wrong — re-do." That's how you correct it.

3. Use this for high-stakes decisions, not coffee orders. Match it to the task.

WHAT'S NEXT

Day 14 of 100. Tomorrow: Day 15 — The "Roleplay As" Technique.

SAFETY CHECK

Same as Day 1.