Optimizing <think> Blocks: Hypothesis on Activation vs. Output Text

CFGeek · x · 2026-08-19

CFGeek replied to a hypothesis about prohibiting optimization on <think> output blocks during model training. The counter-argument claimed that prohibiting optimization on <think> blocks guarantees optimization on the output text. CFGeek found it an interesting hypothesis to test but also suggested an alternative possibility: not optimizing <think> outputs might instead mean the activations get optimized without changing the output text in that specific way.

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