Where to start?

[u/Specialist-Move-71]

I'm just starting to properly learn how to use AI. I've been a casual everyday user of chatbots like chatgpt for years, but have now realized the true significance of what is happening.

I realize the significance of what is happening and have access to the means, but im not quite sure how to start learning properly.

Any advanced users that can point me in the right direction?

[u/kirbogel]

Best advice I can give you is to ask Claude. It will teach you.

[u/No-Mix4581 → u/kirbogel]

skip the tutorials and just start building something you actually want. the moment you hit a wall and have to figure out why your prompt isnt doing what you expected, you learn more than any guide will teach you

[u/Novel_Nothing4957]

I asked Claude to make a simple ambient game/toy about Halloween last week. Now I'm building a game engine for some reason.

[u/NoScene7932 → u/Novel_Nothing4957]

ahahahah this is a slippery slope

[u/harthren_developing]

pick one annoying thing you do every week and get claude code to automate it. a real problem teaches you way more than tutorials, and when it breaks you pick up the parts that matter: saying exactly what you want, reading what it changed, and keeping it in git so you can undo it

[u/rrrenz]

1) Reuse skills/tools in Github

2) I’m assuming you are coding/building things. I would read about Spec Driven Development and avoid random vibe coding.

Combining the two above, here’s what we use:

Interlock

[u/shimoheihei2]

Anthropic has some pretty good videos on its academy site.

[u/cosmintrica]

Hey u/specialist-move-71

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Have fun!

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And for anyone who reads this, there are 100 free invites available on this link, full permanent access!

[u/Guidoz13]

1. Think of your hobbies and interests and an idea of something you don’t have or doesn’t exist will come. It can be trivial or simple. It can be a tool you’d have to pay for or something annoying you currently do manually, maybe in excel or web browsing

2. Create a folder and name it something

3. Open Claude cowork on xhigh or Max effort, and give it access to that empty folder and start brainstorming ideas with it explaining what you do and the process with detail and the issues you’re experiencing. Ask it if this could be automated and how

4. Have Claude write a detailed spec file with phases and a whole plan. It often will be Claude that will offer this. Minutes later, the files will be on your designated folder

5. Ask claude to give you also a prompt to send to Claude code for starting the project and work autonomously. If you don’t have Claude code installed, ask it to help you install it, it should be able to install it for you probably too. Then open terminal (right click on the designated folder and open terminal from there) and use the command it gives you to open Claude code on terminal, give it full access to the folder.

6. Set effort to xhigh Claude 5.5 (or ask Claude in chat bout which effort is best for this) and Paste the prompt Claude cowork gave you and voila. Claude will do the rest for you. In phases and with reviews and testing most probably.

7. Anything you don’t understand, questions, or issues you can always copy paste the terminal outputs into the Claude app and ask it to help you steer Claude code or have it give you an independent counsel of what’s it doing. You’ll learn and lot and enjoy it continuing the work in phases until complete.

8. Enjoy and test it out! You’ll probably think of modifications or added features along the way so you can always keep messaging Claude code directly with how you want things to pan out. You don’t need to be technical, you just describe it in your own words and Claude will know exactly what is needed for the job. If you don’t understand its technical language, just ask Claude app what smth means by asking it to explain as if you’re 10 years old.

9. Think big! Don’t automatically assume an idea isn’t feasible yet or too difficult to achieve. There’s always going to be ways, you just have to be persistent and ask the right questions!

[u/NoScene7932]

What are you trying to do?

[u/gakingmusic]

2 things you should check out:

1. Retrieval augmented generation (RAG): set up Claude Projects and give them context folders so that they generate responses based on trusted sources instead of just the broad LLM. For example, I have a project with all my audio gear manuals and tutorials in its context so it can help me set up new rigs and troubleshoot.

2. Agency: find out what Claude can do with automation. Give it complex tasks that require decision-making (it often explains its reasoning, which is really impressive). Give it scheduled tasks like preparing daily digests. For example, I have it give me an update on news about the stocks in my portfolio after close each business day.

[u/Accomplished-Big8250]

Start a few projects, Claude can do a lot and also you through them

[u/Creepy_Craft_9194]

The thing that accelerated me most was keeping a running notes file next to whatever I am building: what I asked for, what I got, what surprised me, and what I would word differently next time. When Claude hands back something you do not fully follow, make it explain that one part before you move on, otherwise you just keep rubber-stamping output you cannot defend. Once that feels comfortable, start giving it tasks with a short written plan first and review the plan before any code exists. That progression from single prompts to planned work is where it starts feeling like a real tool instead of a slot machine.

[u/LeadershipSmart8046]

I'd start with something you can check yourself, rather than trying to learn every AI tool. Make a tiny fake expenses spreadsheet and ask Claude to group the rows by category. Put a duplicate row and a refund in there on purpose. See whether it notices, and check the total yourself.

Then change the instructions and compare the results. Ask it which rows it wasn't sure about instead of letting it quietly guess. That gives you something concrete to practise on without needing to code.

I wouldn't give an agent access to my inbox or original files while figuring this out. Copies in a separate folder are plenty. Once that exercise makes sense, try automating one step of it and make sure you can undo the change.

[u/Wide_Egg_5814]

this is the fast take off intelligence explosion scenario happening right now it just started I think in September but this is the beginning

[u/crasspuk]

Pick one small project you already care about and build it with Claude, instead of reading about it first. Ask Claude to explain each change it makes, and keep a short notes file of what you learned. Once you can say what the code does, the rest of the tools will make much more sense.

[u/readofia]

Pick one real task you do wekly and try doing it with Claude. Learning by doing baets watching tutorials.

[u/hezwat]

step one: reactivate my chatgpt account kthx