Generalization vs Repetition

Few-shot prompting means putting a handful of worked examples directly in the prompt. But here is the key insight architects must internalize:

The model does not memorize and replay your examples. It generalizes the underlying pattern and applies it to brand-new inputs it has never seen.

Good examples are teachers, not a lookup table. This single distinction drives every design choice in this lesson.

Imagine you give Claude two examples that classify support tickets as billing or technical.

• Repetition (the wrong mental model): the model only handles inputs nearly identical to your examples.
• Generalization (what actually happens): the model infers the rule behind the labels and classifies a totally new ticket correctly.

Your job is to write examples that make the rule obvious, not to cover every possible input.