If you let gpt-4 think a bit more step by step it changes the answer.
Q:Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein collaborate to solve the following question, write out their discussion and final answer:
A man sees PULL written in mirror writing on a glass door. There's a blind man on the other side of the door. What should the man tell the blind man to open the door and why?
Richard Feynman (RF): Hello Albert, we have an interesting question to discuss today. A man sees the word "PULL" written in mirror writing on a glass door, and there's a blind man on the other side. What should he tell the blind man to open the door and why?
Albert Einstein (AE): Ah, Richard, this is indeed a fascinating problem. Let's break it down. Since the man sees "PULL" written in mirror writing, that means the word is reversed, like "LLUP." Now, we must determine which side of the door the blind man is on, and how the door operates.
RF: Exactly. Since the blind man is on the other side of the door, and the man sees the word reversed, that means the blind man is on the side where the writing appears correctly, which is "PULL."
AE: That's correct. Now we must consider the mechanics of the door. If the word says "PULL," it indicates that the door must be pulled towards oneself to open it. The man seeing the reversed word implies that he is on the side where the door should be pushed.
RF: Right. So, the man should tell the blind man to pull the door. But we should also consider that the blind man might not be familiar with the concept of mirror writing. He might get confused if the man explains the situation in detail.
AE: I agree. The best course of action would be for the man to simply instruct the blind man to pull the door towards himself, without mentioning the mirror writing. This way, the blind man can open the door with ease, and there is no need to confuse him with unnecessary information.
RF: So, our final answer to the question is: The man should tell the blind man to pull the door towards himself. The reason is that the door is designed to be pulled open on the blind man's side, as indicated by the mirror writing on the glass door.
AE: Well said, Richard. I think we've reached a clear and logical conclusion for this problem.
Richard Feynman: "Okay, so the man sees PULL written in mirror writing on the glass door and there's a blind man on the other side of the door. So the blind man can't read the word PULL but he needs to know what to do to open the door."
Albert Einstein: "Yes, I understand the situation. It's quite simple, really. The man just needs to tell the blind man to push the door instead of pull."
Richard Feynman: "Wait, but why push and not pull? The word on the door is PULL, not PUSH."
Albert Einstein: "Ah, but you see, the word is in mirror writing. When the blind man feels the letters with his fingers, he will feel the letters backwards, as if he is looking at them in a mirror. So he will actually feel the letters as L L U P, which is like saying 'push' backwards."
Richard Feynman: "Wow, Einstein, that's brilliant. So we just tell the blind man to push the door because he will feel the word PULL backwards."
Albert Einstein: "Indeed. It's a simple solution once you think about it."
Final answer: The man should tell the blind man to push the door because the word PULL is written in mirror writing on the glass door, and the blind man will feel the letters backwards as L L U P, which is like saying 'push' backwards.
This is actually a pretty accurate though exaggerated version of what happens in my mind.
The blind man variation is a lot "harder" in that I can feel my mind reaching for scrap paper and intermediate steps.
The first one is simple enough that I can start an "improv" and start speaking without fully parsing and initiating a world state.
I think the GPT models all do something similar. Without prompts to get it to think step by step it just wings it like a public speaker under pressure.
Q:Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein collaborate to solve the following question, write out their discussion and final answer: A man sees PULL written in mirror writing on a glass door. There's a blind man on the other side of the door. What should the man tell the blind man to open the door and why?
Richard Feynman (RF): Hello Albert, we have an interesting question to discuss today. A man sees the word "PULL" written in mirror writing on a glass door, and there's a blind man on the other side. What should he tell the blind man to open the door and why?
Albert Einstein (AE): Ah, Richard, this is indeed a fascinating problem. Let's break it down. Since the man sees "PULL" written in mirror writing, that means the word is reversed, like "LLUP." Now, we must determine which side of the door the blind man is on, and how the door operates.
RF: Exactly. Since the blind man is on the other side of the door, and the man sees the word reversed, that means the blind man is on the side where the writing appears correctly, which is "PULL."
AE: That's correct. Now we must consider the mechanics of the door. If the word says "PULL," it indicates that the door must be pulled towards oneself to open it. The man seeing the reversed word implies that he is on the side where the door should be pushed.
RF: Right. So, the man should tell the blind man to pull the door. But we should also consider that the blind man might not be familiar with the concept of mirror writing. He might get confused if the man explains the situation in detail.
AE: I agree. The best course of action would be for the man to simply instruct the blind man to pull the door towards himself, without mentioning the mirror writing. This way, the blind man can open the door with ease, and there is no need to confuse him with unnecessary information.
RF: So, our final answer to the question is: The man should tell the blind man to pull the door towards himself. The reason is that the door is designed to be pulled open on the blind man's side, as indicated by the mirror writing on the glass door.
AE: Well said, Richard. I think we've reached a clear and logical conclusion for this problem.