Learn Tech Skills - AI Playlist

If you feel any “AI stress”, remember you can pick and choose. At this point each of the large companies has AI-related tools, so taking a few courses from each entity can expose you to their respective tools (ex: the new Code Whisperer course from Amazon).

It’s starting to look a bit like the MS Office skillset, where you learn/use Microsoft Office tools, it is common to list them on your resume/Linkedin; and then many people now know and list equivalent Google Workspace tools (Google Docs, Spreadsheets).

But now what is emerging is “AI office” tools; so I’d say, keep perspective by thinking of them as exactly that: tools.

AI Playlist

A simple recommendation is to make an AI Playlist: open up a google doc, put down the links to AI tools/courses, try tinkering once a week, maybe friday afternoons. Work it in like you are cooking something, or baking cookies. Add ingredients/tools, ideally look for things that are fun too.

Keep a wishlist as long as you like but don’t let it oppress you. Take a course one at a time instead of trying to do ten, if you never finish when you are trying to do everything.

Making an AI Playlist - Step 1: Set a reminder.

In order for a playlist to be useful, you need to remember to check it and explore on a regular basis. Use anything that works for you - for me, a repeating google calendar reminder is nice. An extra benefit is that you can attach your playlist directly to the google calendar reminder. (Attaching a google doc to a calendar item can also be a nice way to manage meetings, where you can have a google doc for notes. agenda items, common points of reference)

First, choose the Google Calendar app on a mobile device, or sign into Gmail on a laptop/desktop, and choose the Calendar function.

You can select the images in this tutorial to see a larger version.

Next, select the create function and make a new "event".

Give a name to your event. It will be a repeating event, and you could call it "Fun with AI" or "Learning with AI". After entering a title, select "more options".

Choose the day of the week and time for your reminder.

Setting up repeat: select the "does not repeat" drop down menu and choose a repeat option. this is where you will set the appointment up to be repeating. Try weekly.

AI Mindset: remember that you can ask ChatGPT, Bard, etc. for help with any related question.

Next, on the calendar screen, add a notification.

A blank notification shows up.

Select the notification drop down menu and change to email.

When done, click Save.

Congratulations! You've created a repeating email reminder.

Step 2: Create the Playlist doc

First, go to https://docs.google.com/ or run the google doc app on a mobile device, and create a google doc.

Add some links for tools to explore: tools, courses, etc. remember if you hear of a tool you can also search for tutorials or videos on that tool. Whenever you come across something you can add it to your play list. Then, a suggestion is try exploring once a week.

The easiest way to add links or view the list is probably through the Google Docs mobile app.

Some ideas to get started:

Chat tools: ChatGPT, Bard, Claude

Art tools: Dall-e, Ideogram.ai

Video: runway ML gen 2 (text to video)

Pages to follow on LinkedIn: Generative AI

Recap

A simple recommendation is to make an AI Playlist: open up a google doc, put down the links to AI tools/courses, try tinkering once a week, maybe friday afternoons.

Work it in like you are cooking something, or baking cookies. Add ingredients/tools, ideally look for things that are fun too.

Keep a wishlist as long as you like but don’t let it oppress you. Take a course one at a time instead of trying to do ten, if you never finish when you are trying to do everything.

Best wishes