Ultra-Think Mode for LLMs

I use large language models (LLMs) almost every day to ask a variety of questions ranging from simple to complex. By default, LLMs generally provide concise answers. Did you know that you can alter the default prompting style? You can shape how LLMs respond through a set of instructions. For example, try using the following as your next prompt (copy and paste in its entirety):

From now on, use Ultra-Think Mode. That means:
• Analyze problems step-by-step before giving conclusions
• Explain reasoning clearly and in plain English
• Consider alternative explanations or perspectives
• End with a short summary or takeaway
If I say “Ultra-Think off”, go back to your normal concise style.

For both ChatGPT and Google Gemini, I’ve found that Ultra-Think Mode results in a structured response that follows a logical flow. Responses are slightly longer, but they remain topically relevant. I have not tried Ultra-Think Mode for other LLMs, so results may vary.

When I asked ChatGPT to tell me about Ultra-Think Mode, it emphasized that it is not an official ChatGPT feature name or setting. Rather, it is a behavioral configuration achieved through prompting. With some additional inquiries, it said that the following are all appropriate terms to describe Ultra-Think Mode:

• Prompting style: The most accurate everyday term. It’s a way of shaping how the model responds through instructions.
• Cognitive scaffolding prompt: A more technical term sometimes used in AI alignment and education research — it means a prompt that guides structured reasoning (like step-by-step analysis).
• Metacognitive framework: In human reasoning terms, it’s a way of prompting the model to think about how it thinks — examining assumptions, alternatives, and reasoning clarity.
• Response protocol: A practical phrasing for users who treat it as a repeatable, standardized mode of communication.
• Instructional schema: In prompt engineering, “schema” refers to a reusable instruction set that defines structure, tone, and reasoning process. Ultra-Think Mode fits that definition well.

Based on these explanations, I would expect Ultra-Think Mode to work similarly across many LLMs. Regardless of how you’d classify Ultra-Think Mode, let me know if you think it is useful. And if you have found other prompting styles that are useful for certain inquiries, leave a comment!

Bartering for a Phone

I sell a variety of items on Craigslist, and I am accustomed to receiving lowball offers and scams. I recently received a different kind of inquiry that I thought was too funny not to share.

I don’t know if the buyer was serious, as I simply did not respond.

Retrieval of Apple Card & Savings PDF Statements

I have accounts with both Apple Card and Apple Card Savings. At the end of each month, I receive an email for each account that tells me my statements are ready for viewing.

I prefer to download my statements so I can view them on my laptop or desktop computer. Apple Support provides guidance on how to view and download Apple Card statements and Apple Card Savings statements. There are lots of steps involved, and here’s what I have to do to retrieve my statements through the Wallet app on my iPhone.

Apple Card

1. Open the Wallet app
2. Tap Apple Card
3. Tap Card Balance
4. Under Statements, tap the monthly statement you want to view
5. Tap Download PDF Statement
6. When your PDF statement appears, tap the Share icon
7. Tap AirDrop
8. Tap the device that will receive the PDF file
9. Tap the X to close AirDrop
10. Tap anywhere other than the Share window to close the Share options
11. Tap the X to close the PDF statement
12. Tap the < to return to return to your statements
13. Tap the < to return to Apple Card

Apple Card Savings

1. Open the Wallet app
2. Tap Apple Card
3. Tap Savings Account
4. Tap the 3 dots
5. Tap Documents
6. Tap Statements
7. Under Statements, tap the monthly statement you want to view
8. Tap View PDF Statement
9. When your PDF statement appears, tap the Share icon
10. Tap AirDrop
11. Tap the device that will receive the PDF file
12. Tap the X to close AirDrop
13. Tap anywhere other than the Share window to close the Share options
14. Tap the X to close the PDF statement
15. Tap the < to return to return to your statements
16. Tap the < to return to return to your documents
17. Tap the < to return to return to Apple Savings
18. Tap the < to return to Apple Card

Note that Apple Card statements can also be downloaded via laptop or desktop:

1. Launch a web browser
2. Go to https://card.apple.com
3. Click Sign In
4. Authenticate (e.g., with Touch ID)
5. Click Statements
6. Click the download icon next to the monthly statement you want to view

Although there are fewer steps required to download the Apple Card statement on a browser, there is currently no option to download Apple Card Savings statements on a browser. Therefore, I prefer to download and AirDrop both statements from my iPhone. It would be nice if (1) there was a way to also download Savings statements from the Apple Card website and/or (2) the process for downloading statements through the iOS Wallet app required fewer steps. Are you aware of a more efficient process to retrieve your statements?

Detecting AI-Authored Content

I came across an article called “What Counts As Cheating With Ai?”. Ironically, when I read the first sentence, I suspected that it was written using a large language model (LLM; a kind of artificial intelligence or “AI” application). To confirm my hypothesis, I consulted with my favorite LLM, ChatGPT. Check out my full conversation for details.

In summary, ChatGPT drew its own conclusions and also consulted various external sources, with the ultimate conclusion that there is an 85-95% probability that the article was AI-written. Based on ChatGPT’s assessment, the reasons it provided include:

1. Odd word choices / nonnative phrasing
2. Inconsistent tense / mismatch / weird connectors
3. Repetitive structure, formulaic transitions
4. Errors not typical of human edits
5. Lack of smooth coherence in some parts
6. Metadata / site context
7. References / linking style

Those 7 reasons are based on the article that I referenced above, and there are many other criteria that can be used in general to detect AI-authored content. ChatGPT also also compared the text from the article against published criteria from major AI detectors, and it stated:

• GPTZero: Looks at perplexity (predictability of text) and burstiness (variation between sentences). AI text tends to have low burstiness and oddly consistent perplexity. The uniform style and repeated sentence shapes here match GPTZero’s “likely AI” profile.
• CrossPlag AI Detector: Notes that AI often creates unnatural collocations and semantic drift. Examples: “analyzable and confusing” or “students will ne’er ace open” are exactly that.
• Sapling AI Detector: Flags AI when there’s “inflated use of rare words not fitting context”. Words like “erstwhile” and “conscionable” fit this.

In conclusion, if you need help detecting AI-authored content, consider asking AI for help. I found ChatGPT’s reasoning to make a lot of sense, and the AI detectors listed above also seem to have valid criteria for identifying AI-authored content.

Reclaiming Storage Space on Yahoo Mail

In follow-up to my post about Yahoo Mail reducing its free storage limit, you might be thinking about cleaning up your old emails to free up space. Here are some of my recommendations. Keep in mind that these instructions are based on the current capabilities of Yahoo Mail on desktop browsers. There may or may not be similar functions on the mobile app.

Yahoo Mail Search Presets

Click the “Storage” icon at the lower left of the browser window to be taken to https://mail.yahoo.com/n/manage_storage. The preset search options include some common searches that may be a useful starting point to free up the greatest amount of storage space with the least effort:

Advanced Search

You can also enter specific parameters using the Advanced Search options:

This enables you to find emails within a certain date range, emails with attachments or photos, etc. Notice that after clicking on options in the Advanced Search, you’ll see the “command line equivalents” in the search bar. For example:

• Emails containing media: containattachmenttypes:image,video,audio
• Emails containing documents: containattachmenttypes:document
• Emails with attachments older than 10 years: before:"yyyy-mm-dd" (where yyyy-mm-dd is 10 years ago)

You can also mix and match criteria to refine your search.

Delete Emails from a Sender

You’ve likely subscribed to emails from multiple companies and may have accumulated years’ worth of archived messages. Think about the companies that have sent you the most emails and the ones with the most/largest embedded graphics, as deleting them will free up space. To do this, open one of the emails and find the sender’s domain. For example, I’ve subscribed to Costco emails for years and have simply archived them without deleting them, but now it’s time to delete them for good. Mousing over the “Costco Wholesale” sender name reveals the sender’s email address as costco@digital.costco.com.

Use that address to search for the sender in the search bar. Note that searching for just the domain (@digital.costco.com) could potentially capture more emails than the full address (costco@digital.costco.com) because sometimes companies use different sender addresses on the same domain. From there, you will be presented with the first 25 messages. When you click the checkbox to select all 25 messages, you will be presented with an option to select all messages that meet your criteria (truly a “select all” option), after which you can delete all those messages.

Conclusions

As an individual user who wants a mail service to send and receive personal emails, if you want to stay on the free tier for Yahoo Mail, it is simple in most cases to perform routine maintenance on your emails to stay under the new quota. However, it does require a small amount of effort and a plan to reduce clutter. I hope you find these recommendations to be helpful, and if you have any other tips for efficiently reclaiming storage space, leave a comment below.

Yahoo Mail Free Storage Reduction

I’ve used Yahoo Mail for decades, and even though I find Gmail to be more user friendly (especially when comparing the iOS apps), I have continued to use both mail services. The main advantage that Yahoo Mail had over other email services is that its free tier offered 1 TB of storage. However, I received an announcement on July 28, 2025 that its free storage offering was being reduced to 20 GB effective immediately. Fortunately I was just barely below the 20 GB limit, and for those who were over the new 20 GB limit, this article provides additional information about its 1-month “grace period” as Yahoo Mail transitioned into full enforcement of its new quota.

Its current storage plans include 20 GB in the free tier, 100 GB for $1.99/month, and 1 TB for $9.99/month.

As a side note, it was ironic that Yahoo Mail’s own AI-generated summary of a follow-up email on August 25 completely misinterprets the reduction in storage as an increase to 20 GB. I guess we could chalk that up to overly positive spin by the Yahoo marketing team.

Anyway, this reduction in free storage space reminded me of the day when I found out that Google Photos discontinued its free unlimited storage. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.

Airplane Emergency Exit Row Seats

I typically fly at least once a month for work, and with my level of status on American Airlines, I’m usually able to get a free upgrade to an emergency exit row seat. When checking in to my flights on the American Airlines app, it presents me with the exit row seat criteria and requires me to accept the criteria as pictured below.

During the boarding process when I scan my boarding pass QR code at the gate, I usually tell the gate agent that “I am ready, willing, and able to assist in the event of an emergency.” A vast majority of the time the gate agent says “thank you” in appreciation for me doing my little part to expedite the boarding process. In rare occurrences, the gate agent says that they have to be the one asking me the question, and I have to respond affirmatively, so even after I tell them that I’m ready, willing, and able to assist in the event of an emergency, they will ask me if I’m ready, willing, and able to assist in the event of an emergency, and I say “Yes.” Sometimes the gate agent will even get visibly frustrated with me, presumably for having the audacity to do their jobs for them.

This prompted me to research the Code of Federal Regulations, and the relevant language seems to be in 14 CFR § 121.585 Exit seating. In short, the airline (“certificate holder”) must determine the suitability of persons occupying exit row seats. However, it does not explicitly say how that determination must be made, in terms of the exact words used or whether the airline representative must ask or if the passenger is allowed to volunteer this information.

Because I could not find publicly available information about American Airlines policies, I asked ChatGPT to help. Here are excerpts of what ChatGPT told me.

What American Airlines says publicly (and what’s visible)

American’s agent/agency materials and SalesLink references (AA internal/partner pages) explicitly list the same exit-seat criteria (able to operate the exit, age, etc.) and discuss that customers should be pre-qualified before placing in an exit seat. Those materials imply the airline expects staff (or travel partners) to confirm eligibility when assigning exit seats. However, the SalesLink pages are internal/partner resources (not a public passenger policy) so they don’t show a single public script or a prohibition against passengers volunteering their readiness.

Source: https://saleslink.aa.com/en-US/resources/html/emergency-exit.html

What AA crew training / operations indicate

American’s training materials reference exit-row briefings and exit-row procedures for crew, which is consistent with FAA practice that flight attendants must brief and obtain an affirmative confirmation from exit-row occupants once on board. Those crew/training references are internal (FAPortal) and not public in full, but they show AA treats exit-row verification as a formal, trained step.

Source: https://faportal.aa.com/html/Training/PDFs/CQ2025-2026_WhatToExpect10SEP25.pdf

Practical conclusion (why you see variation)

Because the FAA leaves the method of “determination” to the airline’s approved procedures, airlines set their own internal SOPs. American appears to have internal guidance (SalesLink / training) about exit-row criteria and verification — but I could not find any public AA policy that (a) requires gate agents to ask a fixed scripted question at the gate, or (b) forbids accepting a passenger’s proactive statement.

The on-the-ground inconsistency you see (most agents accepting your preemptive statement, others saying “I have to ask”) is therefore entirely plausible: some agents follow a practical, customer-friendly approach; others follow a conservative reading of company procedure or habit (or their system/booking workflow prompts them to require a specific confirmation). Forums and crew posts back up that gate behavior varies. 

Source: https://saleslink.aa.com/en-US/resources/html/emergency-exit.html

As a passenger in an emergency exit row seat, do you proactively state to gate agents that you are ready, willing, and able to assist in the event of an emergency, and have you experienced similar variation? Or are you an airline agent, and can you comment on what your airline's policies are on this matter?