Getting Started with AI

The resources I actually use and recommend. From complete beginner to daily workflows.

Watch First

Start Here

Google AI EssentialsSTART HERE

Grow with Google • Free • ~5 hours

The best beginner course. Learn what AI is, how to use it effectively, and practical applications for work and life.

What is Claude?

Anthropic • Free • 10 min read

Understand what Claude is, what it can do, and how to get started with the AI assistant I use most.

ChatGPT for Beginners

OpenAI • Free • Help Center

Official guide to ChatGPT. How to use it, what it's good at, and tips for getting better results.

Learn to Prompt

Learn PromptingESSENTIAL

Learn Prompting • Free • Comprehensive

The most thorough guide to prompt engineering. Learn how to communicate with any AI model effectively.

Anthropic's Prompt Engineering Guide

GitHub / Anthropic • Free • Interactive

Step-by-step interactive course on optimal prompting. Learn the techniques that actually work.

Everyday Tools

Claude

Anthropic • Free tier available

Best for writing, analysis, and working with long documents. My daily driver for complex tasks.

ChatGPT

OpenAI • Free tier available

The most popular AI assistant. Great for general questions, brainstorming, and quick tasks.

Perplexity

Perplexity AI • Free tier available

AI-powered search engine. Ask questions and get answers with sources. Replaces Google for research.

NotebookLM

Google • Free

Upload documents and have AI conversations about them. Creates podcast-style audio summaries.

Creative AI

Midjourney

Midjourney • Paid

The gold standard for AI image generation. Create stunning visuals from text descriptions.

Kling AI

Kuaishou • Free tier available

State-of-the-art video generation. Create realistic videos from text or images.

Runway

Runway • Paid

Professional AI video tools. Gen-3 for video generation, plus editing tools used by filmmakers.

ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs • Free tier available

Voice cloning and text-to-speech. Create realistic voiceovers or clone your own voice.

Productivity

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft • Included with M365

AI built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Write documents, analyze data, create presentations.

Notion AI

Notion • Add-on subscription

AI writing and organization inside Notion. Summarize notes, generate content, answer questions about your docs.

YouTube Channels

My Stack

Claude (Max)Writing, analysis, complex tasks
Claude CodeCoding assistant
PerplexityResearch & search
NotebookLMDocument analysis
KlingVideo generation
ElevenLabsVoice & audio

The Ledger

Essays about building durable businesses, institutional knowledge, software, and decision making. Not AI news.