AI for Absolute Beginners: 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before My First Week

Kevin Yadidi — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 03:46:48 +0000

I put off trying AI for months because every explanation sounded like it was written for engineers. When I finally started, here is what actually helped.

You only need one app to start. Pick one chatbot (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude — any of them) and ignore the rest until you are comfortable.
A prompt is just a request with details. "Write an email" gets you something generic. "Write a polite 3-sentence email to my landlord about a leaky faucet" gets you something usable. The details are the skill.
AI makes things up sometimes. It will state wrong dates and prices with total confidence. Double-check anything factual before you act on it.
Small jobs beat big projects. My first useful wins were a meal plan from what was in my fridge and a summary of a long article. Start boring, then get ambitious.
You cannot break it. There is no wrong button that ruins anything. The worst outcome is a bad answer you ignore.

What is the one thing that made AI finally click for you — or what is still stopping you?

Disclosure: I wrote a beginner book about exactly this, "AI for Ding-Dongs: The Ridiculously Simple Guide to Using Artificial Intelligence" — plain English, real examples, no jargon. Paperback on Amazon: https://a.co/0eXrWCYL

DEV Community: Kevin Yadidi

AI for Absolute Beginners: 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before My First Week