3 Things I Learned Last Week #84 – AI Thinking, Faster Coding, and Mastering Prompts

Welcome to the 84th edition of “3 Things I Learned Last Week”! 🌟

Buckle up, knowledge seekers! It’s time for another wild ride through the labyrinth of my learning adventures. This newsletter is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get, but it’s probably gonna be sweet and potentially mind-blowing.

Ready to have your synapses tickled? Let’s dive in!

1. 🤖 OpenAI o1: The AI Agent’s New Best Friend
2. 💻 Cursor Hacks: Because Who Doesn’t Want to Code Like a Caffeinated Octopus?
3. 🧠 ell: The Prompt Engineering Framework That’s Cooler Than Your Ex

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🤖 OpenAI o1: Teaching AI to Think Before It Speaks (Finally!)

Remember when AI was like that friend who always blurted out the first thing that came to mind? Well, OpenAI o1 is here to teach our silicon buddies some manners. It’s introducing “systems 2 thinking,” which is fancy talk for “maybe we should think this through before setting the world on fire.”

Why should you care?

• AI can now pause and ponder, like a digital Sherlock Holmes (minus the pipe and deerstalker hat).
• It breaks down tasks like a pro chef dicing onions – precise, methodical, and hopefully with fewer tears.
• OpenAI’s secret sauce includes “thoughts” training and reinforcement learning. No, it’s not teaching AI to overthink at 3 AM like the rest of us.

🎥 Watch AI learn to use its inside voice

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💻 Cursor Hacks: Because Coding Shouldn’t Feel Like Wrestling an Octopus

Ever wish your cursor had superpowers? Well, grab your cape because Cursor AI is here to save the day (and your sanity). With these hacks, you’ll be coding faster than a caffeinated squirrel on a sugar rush.

The secret sauce:

• Use VZ to visualize your UI. It’s like giving your cursor a crystal ball, but for code.
• Set Cursor Rules. It’s like training a puppy, but with less drool and more semicolons.
• Feed your cursor real data. It’s like switching from a diet of fairy tales to hard-hitting journalism.

🎥 Transform your cursor from Clark Kent to Superman

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🧠 ell: The Prompt Engineering Framework That’s Cooler Than Your Ex

Meet “ell,” the new kid on the block in prompt engineering. It’s like the cool, laid-back friend who somehow always has their life together. Created by William Gus (no relation to Gus from Breaking Bad, we checked), ell makes chatting with LLMs feel like a walk in the park.

Why ell is the new black:

• It turns OpenAI completions into a breeze. It’s like having a personal translator for AI-speak.
• ell Studio lets you track revisions like a time-traveling editor. No DeLorean required.
• It handles structured outputs and multimodal inputs. It’s the Swiss Army knife of prompt engineering, minus the tiny, useless scissors.

🎥 Watch ell make prompt engineering look easy

That’s all, folks! Hope this edition of “3 Things I Learned Last Week” made your neurons dance and your curiosity tingle.

Still not subscribed? What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation from the ghost of Alan Turing? Click that subscribe button faster than you can say “artificial general intelligence”!

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May your week be filled with more “aha!” moments than “d’oh!” moments!

Cheers,

~ Nathan

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