Reasoning Efforst and Context Size

Where should we go to eat?

Reasoning effort is how much work you put it into it. How much research and logic you apply. Did you do a search on the map? Are you looking for a particular cuisine or vibe? Wanna watch the game? Any allergies to consider? Don’t wanna drive too far?

All of that takes reasoning effort.

Context size is how much of this you keep in your brain while deciding. Maybe you didn’t do a search because you’re local and you’re deciding among places you already know across the region. Or maybe you’re narrowing it further because you wanna go to one of your three “regular” places at which the bartender knows your name.

That list in your head is your context size.

This is how you can think about how to select this when using AI.