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#Onions and Prompts

I recently came across a genuinely useful idea on Tom's Guide about using an “onion prompt” with AI to organise your schedule when you’re overwhelmed. If you haven’t seen it, I’d strongly recommend reading the original article — it explains the thinking behind the method and the psychological principles that make it effective: https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/i-use-the-onion-prompt-with-chatgpt-when-im-buried-in-tasks-it-cuts-through-clutter-in-seconds How I’ve adapted it I’m using Google Gemini rather than ChatGPT, and I used my task list from Google Keep instead of viewing my desktop. The tools are little different (but not too much), but the central ideas are the same: strip away the layers hiding your real priorities and let AI “peel back” your to-do list until only what truly matters remains. To make it easier, I copied my Google Keep list into a Google Doc and pasted it into the prompt. Prompt 1: Prioritising with the “Onion” Method Here’s the version I’m using (slightly adapt...
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Reverse engineering a specification from a solution using GenAI: Part 1

Imagine buying complex furniture, but the instructions are a chaotic pile of sticky notes. That is exactly how programmers feel when trying to connect different web services (like weather apps or payment processors). They usually have to dig through messy documentation just to make two programs talk to each other. The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) fixes this by acting as a universal, standardised "Instruction Manual." Why It Matters OpenAPI acts as a perfect bridge between humans and machines: For Humans: It provides a clear map of what a service does, what information it needs, and what it returns. For Computers: Because the rules are strict and predictable, software can "read" the manual and automatically connect to the service. What Can You Do With It? With an OpenAPI blueprint, developers can plug into tools that do the heavy lifting for them: Create Visual Guides: Turn complex code into sleek, interactive websites where users can test the service with the cli...

Ideas to project proposal ideas from Google Scholar - the video

GenAI Productivity: Ideas to project proposal ideas from Google Scholar

Generated as well by Google Gemini In previous blog posts, I have looked at generating project ideas for project ideas. These can be used with many different GenAI platforms . As an idea/challenge, I want to come up with a way for students to generate ideas for projects based on knowing who they would like to work with and that person's Google Scholar profile. Here is the catch: often, it can be difficult to access Google Scholar to do this. One solution  is to use Google Gemini, a Google product, to access another Google product. Going to apply this to my own profile - ego rides again . It went and did much when I click on it and deep research, it did a full research report. Prompt used :  " Using this as a starting point https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ghQedZAAAAAJ&hl=en from the research here provide 10 project ideas suitable for a final year Computer Science student project with this supervisor. For each provide title, 100 word summary, possible outcome s...

GenAI Productivity: Ideas to project proposal 3

Produced using Google Gemini In two previous posts I looked at using Generative AI to start producing  project ideas and refining one to be the start of the proposal, Previous blog posts GenAI Productivity: Ideas to project proposal 1 GenAI Productivity: Ideas to project proposal 2 This post is really a slightly different variation on those. Playing with adding a few things in. The example can be repurposed for non-computing student but the example came from a discussion with a BSc Software Engineering student, thinking about project ideas Example starting prompt in ChatGPT4o " P roduce 5 project ideas suitable for a BSc Software Engineering students for the following topic: " Ambient Assisted Living " The project must suit someone with a strong interest in programming.  For each idea produce a 100 word description; justification in 200 words why this is a worthwhile project; a set of goals; sources of potential data; physical resources neede d " It does produce 5 p...