AI is Not Just for Coding Faster
Since chatGPT was made publicly available back in November of 2022 (wow, so LITTLE time ago, huh?), I’ve been searching for ways to get AI’s help to do my work better. Like most devs, I started by using AI to help with code. Bug fixes, new feature implementation, help with designing and architecting a solution and even explaining what a piece of code does, I’ve done it all. Or, almost all, as I haven’t vibe coded a full app yet. YET! 😂
One other way I recently explored AI’s capabilities was to help me learn a concept I was not very familiar with and had barely any experience with: multithreading in Python.
The idea was to get AI to create a very focused and succinct study plan, something I could easily fit in on my schedule, but that would give me 80% of the knowledge I should have, at least theoretically, about this subject. So my prompt to Grok AI was something along these lines:
“Sticking with Python’s standard library and official docs, please draw a plan for me to get familiar with the main concepts of threading computing and suggest a small project that I could put together to reinforce my knowledge.
The plan should be limited to 5 sessions, each lasting no longer than 2 hours - the exception is for the project development time, which can run longer. Include reading materials and/or video, whatever 20% will give me the 80% knowledge I need to speak about it more confidently.”
The response was great! It gave me a 5-session plan, just like I asked, and each session had:
- a theme
- how long it should take
- a goal for what I’d learn
- reading and/or video links
- a tiny practice script
- one key takeaway
The last session was about building a mini project, with a sample implementation that I could check for ideas. And as a bonus, it threw in:
- a few extra tips
- and a list of “you should probably be able to answer these” kind of questions
The way the content was structured helped me to gradually build up on the main concepts, without getting lost in the weeds. And it was fun!
Side note: another version of this prompt, if you don’t want or need a full study plan, would be:
"I want to learn about [insert topic]. Identify and share the most important 20% of learnings from this topic that will help me understand 80% of it."
AI is not just helping me write code faster. In this case, it helped me learn better. As our tools change, we should adapt and get creative about how we learn, how we problem-solve and how we build software. It’s about staying curious and finding new ways to move forward. 🚀
Thank you for reading!
I'd love to hear your thoughts — let's keep the conversation going on X: @Flavia_SBastos