Tip2025 · 09 · 22#prompting
Temperature is a creativity dial, not a quality dial
Temperature reshapes the probability distribution before sampling. Low temperature sharpens it toward the most likely token; high temperature flattens it so unlikely tokens get a real chance.
So the dial controls variance, not intelligence. If a task has a correct answer, variance is your enemy and you want it near zero. If you want range and surprise, turn it up and sample several times.