Watercolor: laptop terminal glowing with a golden line of AI response, notebook with token beads, tea cup, and sticky note with checkmark on desk

Day 1 Exercise: Run Your First API Code

This is the Day 1 companion exercise for the AI Path L1→L2 Upgrade Guide. Read Part 1 first, then come back here to practice. Today we do exactly one thing: run the hello_api.py from Part 1 and see AI reply in your terminal. Prerequisites Complete these steps from Part 1 (skip if already done): Register a DeepSeek developer account (Part 1, “Register for API Accounts”) Get your API Key and save it to a .env file (Part 1, “API Key Safety”) Install uv and Python 3.12 (Part 1, “Install Python”) Create a virtual environment and install dependencies (Part 1, “Create a Virtual Environment”) Confirm your project directory looks like this: ...

2026-06-02 · 3 min · Alex Wang
A seemingly perfect experiment report under a magnifying glass revealing two design flaws: rubric bias toward the tested variable and insufficient scenario coverage

AI-Designed Experiments Need Human Review

Series: AI Agent Experiment Methodology (Part 3) Previous: The Experiment Design Was Fine, So Why Did the LLM Still Fail? TL;DR: In a double-blind experiment, Variant B won 4/4 scenarios with clean data. But design review revealed the rubric had 3/8 dimensions directly testing the target variable, exceeding the 1/3 ceiling and nearly becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a separate validation, one scenario scored perfectly while another exposed a defect—if we had run only the first, the defect would have shipped. Both traps were caught by reviewing the design, not by running the experiment. ...

2026-06-01 · 7 min · Alex Wang
Watercolor: chat bubbles dissolving into a token stream flowing into a notebook and brass key on a desk

AI Path L1→L2 Upgrade Guide (1): Your First API Call

TL;DR: This is Part 1 of the “AI Path L1→L2 Upgrade Guide” series. Four parts total, one per week of practice. This article takes you from chat windows to APIs—automating your AI interactions through code, laying the foundation for batch processing and autonomous task-execution AI. Introduction: From “I Ask AI” to “Programs Ask AI” If you finished the L0→L1 graduation checklist, you might remember one line from the graduation post: “Register for an API account and use Python to print your first AI reply.” Today is that day. ...

2026-06-01 · 12 min · Alex Wang
A carefully designed experiment pipeline corrupted by context leaks at two nodes, contrasted with the clean rebuilt version

The Experiment Design Was Fine. The LLM Still Failed.

Series: AI Agent Experiment Methodology (Part 2) Part 1: How to Use Double-Blind Experiments to Validate Skill Changes TL;DR: Round one of the double-blind experiment: B won 3/4 scenarios but failed the magnitude filter. Verdict: “insufficient evidence.” Investigation revealed S1-A’s output was polluted by terminal color codes, and the scorer diligently scored 8 dimensions on ANSI garbage. After reconstructing the execution context, B won 4/4. The failure wasn’t in the experiment design—it was in how sub-agents’ context boundaries were constructed. ...

2026-05-31 · 6 min · Alex Wang
Watercolor style: a winding path leading to a small flag on a hilltop, with broader mountain ranges and clouds stretching beyond

AI Path L0→L1 Upgrade Guide (5): Graduation Checklist & Next Steps

📖 This is Part 5 of 5 in the “AI Path L0→L1 Upgrade Guide” series — Series Navigation + Graduation Checklist. Series Navigation Part Topic Core Content Part 1 Understanding Your Tools LLM fundamentals (not a search engine), working memory vs. long-term memory, mainstream platforms and specialized tools Part 2 From Vague Questions to Precise Instructions The RBGO prompt framework, Chain-of-Thought reasoning, format constraints Part 3 Turning AI Into Your Collaboration Partner Iterative follow-up questions, context management (new conversations / progress summaries / chunked processing), role-playing Part 4 Building Your Personal System Prompt library, scenario-to-tool mapping (international and China options), layered knowledge management Part 5 Graduation & Next Steps L1 graduation checklist, L1→L2 dual-path preview ...

2026-05-30 · 2 min · Alex Wang
Double-blind experiment diagram showing randomized variant mapping and blind evaluation process

Testing Prompt Changes: Why You Need Double-Blind Experiments

TL;DR: You changed a skill. How do you know it’s actually better, not just confirmation bias? I ran a double-blind experiment: two versions, four scenarios, independent blind scoring. The scorer saw X=2.44, Y=2.41 and said “can’t tell them apart.” After unblinding: simplified version won 4/0. The 0.03 Gap I shortened a review skill from 159 lines to 89 lines. Wanted to verify the simplified version actually worked better, so I ran a double-blind experiment. ...

2026-05-29 · 6 min · Alex Wang
Watercolor style: a wooden desk with a partially open drawer revealing neatly organized pastel index cards in three rows, three sample cards fanned out on the desk surface

What My Prompt Library Looks Like: A Real Template

The biggest obstacle to building a Prompt library isn’t the tool — it’s knowing how to organize it. Yesterday you picked 5 Prompts; today I’ll show you a complete real template. Directory Structure This structure uses the Markdown folder approach. You can copy it directly: prompt-library/ ├── writing/ │ ├── email.md │ ├── article-summary.md │ └── ... ├── analysis/ │ ├── data-interpretation.md │ ├── case-breakdown.md │ └── ... ├── daily/ │ ├── meeting-notes.md │ └── ... └── README.md (global notes) The record format for each Prompt: ...

2026-05-28 · 4 min · Alex Wang
Watercolor style: an open notebook with five card-shaped slots, three filled with colored cards and two blank, scattered sticky notes nearby, a warm cream desk surface

Today's Practice: Organize Your First 5 Prompts

Today’s Practice From your recent AI conversations — coding, writing, analysis — pick 5 prompts that actually worked well. Record them using the template from Part 4: original prompt + effectiveness rating + iteration notes. Where you record them doesn’t matter — a notes app, Notion, a plain text file. Don’t overthink the tool. If you can’t find your chat history, spend 20 minutes creating 5 prompts you’ll definitely use at work. For example: “Check the edge cases in this code,” “Rewrite this technical article for beginners,” “Extract the 3 main issues from these 100 user feedbacks.” ...

2026-05-27 · 2 min · Alex Wang
Watercolor style: a neatly organized workbench with labeled glass jars, a leather journal, curated tools, and a two-drawer cabinet symbolizing tiered knowledge management

AI Path L0→L1 Upgrade Guide (4): Building Your Personal System

📖 This is Part 4 of 5 in the “AI Path L0→L1 Upgrade Guide” series. Part 1: Understanding Your Tools · Part 2: From Vague Questions to Precise Instructions · Part 3: Turning AI Into Your Collaboration Partner · Part 4: Building Your Personal System · Part 5: Graduation & Next Steps Over three weeks we’ve picked up follow-up questions, context management, role-playing… the skills are piling up, and here’s the problem: how do you manage all these scattered abilities in one place? Week 4 is about exactly that — building a prompt library, choosing the right tools, and setting up knowledge management. Turning what you’ve learned into a personal system. ...

2026-05-26 · 4 min · Alex Wang
A row of dim review dimension slots with only one glowing, then fully lit after new modules are added — but the version on the right, weighed down by math symbols, has gone dark again

Dimension Experiments: Can a 36-Year-Old Book Fix Your Review Coverage?

Series: Classic Theory Meets Agent Practice (Part 3) Part 1: Dual-Pass Review: Why You Can’t Have Both Recall and Precision · Part 2: Strategy Genes: Pruning Review Prompts with Genetic Algorithm Thinking TL;DR: Two controlled experiments. Code review dimensions went from 8 to 11, and known-issue detection went from 1/6 to 6/6. Design review introduced axiomatic design dimensions, and detection also went from 1/6 to 6/6. But the version with a math formula proved that more dimensions are not always better — computation consumed review attention, and findings dropped 35%. Run controlled experiments with known issues as reference, and you learn which dimensions actually work. ...

2026-05-25 · 9 min · Alex Wang