Halfdecent

Three Es

SVG of 1980s calculator created by Claude.ai

Ive read a couple of pieces recently expressing concerns about cognitive unloading that reminds me of being at school in the UK in the 1980s. At that time calculators were first being introduced to the classroom and the concern was similar.

To counter this concern and to teach good practice we were introduced to using calculators along with the "three Es":

When making a calculation we were taught to first estimate the expected result, then evaluate it, write it down (if it was in the right ballpark) and then evaluate it again to ensure you didnt make a mistake. If it wasnt in the right ballpark, maybe you were calculating it incorrectly so go back and check your estimate and your approach. If the two values were the same, then you could proceed, but if not you needed to run it again until you got the same result twice.

Im not sure if the same is still taught today but it has been quite useful to me over the years. Perhaps a similar pedagogical approach could be used with LLMs. i.e. if you're writing something, plan it out or sketch it first before prompting (ideally with the plan). Also double check any facts and references provided by the LLM.