Upskilling in AI: Unconventional Prompt Use

Source: Dev.to

AI Is Everywhere – And So Is the Need to Adapt

AI is all the rage right now and is being applied to every facet of life. Everywhere you turn, AI is often staring you in the face:

• At the café: A new AI‑generated image of the barista as Thanos snapping the stains off mugs hangs behind the urinal.
• On the web: You search for “Hot Wheels hubcap sizes” on Google and get a four‑paragraph AI summary.

A lot of folks are also being asked to dive into AI head‑first and become highly productive without much preamble. AI‑first workflows are a completely different paradigm and way of work. The mechanics of “doing the thing” have become the arena of AI, and you are now the conductor, manager, editor, reviewer. For many, these mechanics are part of their professional joy, but we must adapt to our new normal.

Why Prompt Writing & Context Engineering Matter

I won’t be diving into the Brainstorm → Plan → Execute → Review loop (or its synonyms) for effective AI use in software engineering. Instead, I want to focus on something I’ve found helpful for wrapping your head around AI and getting what you want from it.

• Prompt writing and building context are skills unto themselves.
• They are core to AI‑first approaches and agentic workflows.
• If you can’t get a desired one‑off outcome from AI through prompts and context engineering, you’ll struggle to layer additional complexities for real work.

Just like coding or lab work, prompt writing and context engineering require consistent practice in a variety of situations. I write a lot of prompts and do a lot of context engineering professionally, but I also practice and refine these skills frequently.

How?

“How?”, you may be asking.

AI Can Be Fun, Not Just Business

AI can be more than serious research, business, or text‑overlaying Subway Surfers for social‑media $$$. It can be fun. It opens up new possibilities for creation and expression that previously weren’t possible.

• There are downsides and controversies surrounding AI training and its creative use, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
• When Pandora’s box opens, you can either cower or reach inside. Personally, my feet are kicking the air and I swan‑dove into the abyss.

Getting In On the Action

What’s in it for you?

The sky is the limit, and the only restriction is your imagination and ability to bend AI to your will.

• Idea for a picture? Want to send a dog‑obsessed friend a funny image?
• Profile makeover? “I’d love to be a Jedi in my avatar.”

All this and more can be yours.

Example: The Dog Lover

Suppose your friend has a rambunctious little dog that leaps from the couch so high you swear he’ll hit the moon one night. Don’t let your dreams be dreams! Through the power of AI, all things are possible.

• Don’t like Golden Retrievers? Maybe a Frenchie?
• Swap any element, send anything to the moon.
• Generate any kind of image, convert styles (comic‑book, Disney, etc.), change text on images, create memes…

Your imagination is the inkwell; AI is the quill—sometimes a bit janky, but always awesome. These capabilities live on your phone, familiarizing you with AI while bringing joy and color to your life and those of your loved ones.

Beyond Goofing Around: A Real‑World Use Case

Training for a 50K Ultra

You’ve been running for a while. Your Strava is loaded, and you follow a loose plan: two easy runs, one speed day, a long run, and a recovery run each week, each with varying intensities.

One morning you think, “I want to run a 50K in six months.”

Normally you’d:

1. Research how to structure the plan.
2. Account for sick days or missed training.
3. Adjust routes and schedule.
4. Read articles, then manually tweak the plan.

Enter AI.

• Generate a structured plan in minutes.
• Adjust on the fly (sick days, new PBs, preference changes).
• Create tracking spreadsheets automatically.

My Experience

Feeding my recent PBs, average heart rates, elevation load, goals, and preferences into Claude let me build a complete 50K plan—including strength training—in a convenient, annotated spreadsheet.

• The AI handled sick days and a Christmas break perfectly.
• Tracking metrics in COROS and Strava showed marked improvements, matching or exceeding generic plans like Daniels’ Running Formula.
• As long as you keep the thread alive (or summarize/pass context into a new one), you essentially have Kilian Jornet as the butler for your training plan. (The real Kilian would probably never do this, but AI will—happily.)

I’m currently running a single cycle, but I plan to try a multi‑year plan once this one concludes and I get my race results. Needless to say, I’ll be guinea‑pigging it in the back half of 2026 and either touting the awe‑inspiring results or learning valuable lessons.

Takeaways

1. Prompt writing & context engineering are foundational skills for any AI‑first workflow.
2. Practice them in low‑stakes, fun scenarios to build confidence.
3. Leverage AI for both creative expression (images, memes, avatars) and serious tasks (training plans, spreadsheets, research).
4. Keep the conversation thread alive or pass context forward to maintain AI’s “memory” and effectiveness.

Embrace the new normal, experiment, and let AI amplify both your productivity and your imagination. 🚀

## Ways I'm Using AI

- **Someness of AI or finding myself a real coach.**  
  (This appears to be a placeholder or a note; you may want to replace it with the intended phrase.)

- These are just a couple of the ways I'm using AI personally to improve my life, do some professional development, and annoy / delight my loved ones.

- I've also had success:
  - Scaling recipes,
  - Creating recipes from what I have on hand,
  - Proofreading my writing.

> Truly, the sky is the limit here. AI is becoming more and more ubiquitous, and learning how to engage with it and get benefits from it is likely to serve you well personally and professionally.