Learning AI, data and tech

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A simple first month with AI, data and tools you own.

A new friend asked me where to start, so I made this page for him. It’s the path I’d give anyone: four steps, about a month, free to begin. You don’t need to know how to code. You just need a question you care about.

“We get to handmake our lives and the tools have never been better.”From Handmake your life

  1. AskUse AI every day
  2. BuildMake one thing you’ll use
  3. AnalyzeAnswer a question with data
  4. OwnKeep what you make

Or jump to the first-month checklist ↓

Step 1 · Level 1, the Investigator

Ask it everything

“Many people think of AI as a super search tool. And they’re right, it is.”From How I use AI, where I lay out the three levels of AI I’ve seen

The first level is the one most people already know. The trick is to use it every day, on real things, until it feels like talking to a smart friend.

Try this

  • Pick one assistant and stick with it for a month. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini all have free versions, and any of them is a fine place to start.
  • Ask it one real question a day: something from work, a recipe, a word you didn’t know, a decision you’re stuck on.
  • Always ask a follow-up. Why?, What am I missing? or Explain it like I’m new to this.
  • Let it ask you. Interview me about this until you understand what I need turns a search into a conversation.
  • Check what matters. AI can sound sure and still be wrong. When the answer counts, ask for its sources and open them.
Elements of AI ↗A free online course from the University of Helsinki and MinnaLearn on what AI is and what it can and can’t do, with no math or programming.
Step 2 · Level 2, the Builder

Make one thing you’ll use

“This is where AI actually makes things for you.”From How I use AI

This is where it gets fun. AI has helped me build a citizenship practice app for my wife, my own writing app and this whole website. You can start much smaller.

Citizenship practice 1000 Words Daily Gratitude This website

Try this

  • Pick one small annoyance and ask AI to build the fix: a budget spreadsheet, a packing list, a one-page website, a little quiz for your kids.
  • Describe it like you’d tell a friend: who it’s for, what it should do and what it should look like. Then ask it to make it.
  • Use it for a day, then go back and ask for one change at a time.
  • Save it somewhere that’s yours (that’s Step 4).
Step 3 · Your first data project

Answer a question with data

“I asked AI to look up all of the schedules of every high school and college football game in my local area and create a schedule for me of which games I should go see.”From How I use AI

That’s data analysis: gather information, put it in one place and ask it a question. A dozen schedules, team rankings and rivalries became one list of great games. You can start the same way.

Your first project, in six steps

  1. Pick a question you actually care about. Where does my money go each month? Which games should I see? When do I sleep best?
  2. Find the data. Many banks and apps let you download your own history as a spreadsheet file (a CSV). Or ask AI where public data on your question lives.
  3. Put it in one spreadsheet. Google Sheets is free and works in any browser.
  4. Ask AI to help you read it: Explain each column, What three questions could this answer?, Make one chart that shows the most important thing.
  5. Check one number yourself. Add up a column with a formula and make sure it matches what AI told you.
  6. Write what you found in three sentences and share it with someone.

Keep private things private: think twice before pasting account numbers, passwords or other people’s details into any AI tool.

When you want to understand what’s happening underneath, these are free:

Kaggle Learn ↗Short free courses with exercises: Python, Pandas, Intro to SQL and Data Visualization, the everyday tools of data analysis. Khan Academy: Statistics and probability ↗What averages, spreads and samples really mean, so you can tell a real pattern from a fluke. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python ↗Al Sweigart’s book, free to read online, for when you want the code AI writes for you to make sense.
Step 4 · Tech independence

Keep what you make

“…why I think it’s very important for you to own your own AI and not rent it from someone else.”From How I use AI

Tech independence means not depending on any one company. Derek Sivers wrote the guide I’m following, and I keep score of my progress on it in public, step by step.

Try this

“My own server. My own email list. And if I can do it, you can too.”From Handmake your life
Your first month

Tick it off as you go

One step a week. Your ticks stay in this browser only, so come back to this page and pick up where you left off.

Week 1 · Ask

Week 2 · Build

Week 3 · Analyze

Week 4 · Own

0 of 13 done

You did the whole month. That’s a real start. Tell me what you made.

Nothing you tick is sent anywhere.

Read next

How I’m learning, in public

How I use AIThe three levels: the Investigator, the Builder and the Partner. A short read, or a 6-minute video of me reading it.
The bicycle of the mindFrom a little robot my dad built to AI as a horse, a partner with a mind of its own.
Handmake your lifeWhy I write without AI and build with it, and the start of my own tech independence.
Everyone deserves a website they loveFourteen years on Squarespace, and what changed when I finally left.
EvolutionThis website, built with AI in public, with a day-by-day log of what I’ve made.
One question for you

If I could help you with one thing around AI, what would it be?

Send me a note. I love this stuff, and your question might become a Saturday essay.

Email me Travis

Follow along

“I’m very much building and learning as we go.” One essay every Saturday, on my own list, on my own server.