u/Important_Coffee_845 — reddlx

This is not meant to discourage anyone nor make anyone feel like theyre doing anything wrong. This is genuinely meant to help. We have all been here and so many of us are from radically different walks of life. Not everyone is internet saavy. Many people are here because they have no experience with AI, not even LLMs and they might feel a little lost.

So from my experience with Maestro is I actually felt like the user interface (what you see when you are on the website) was radically minimalist. Where's the school announcements? Where is the lectures? Where is the drop box?

Then... I got used to it. The website is smooth and very modern. Nothing is perfect but its a very cool website. So I was a little shocked when I started seeing posts here on reddit where people are missing features and thinking things dont exist that do. Im like... are you on the right website?

Then I realized, some of us might not have gone to school since schools had lockers (this was before my time and Im 33). I tend to assume through out the 2010s that all of us have become internet savvy to a degree. But there are still a LOT of people who basically just interact with a series of social media and search apps and thats their whole experience with the internet. There are very young and slightly older people who simply werent online in 2004 and dont remember the concept of a website. And a website that talks back to you... what?! And of course: "being good at computers" is not the same as being good at navigating cyberspace. And being tuned into the internet zeitgeist and meme culture is not the same as being a power user of modern software and hardware.

As a Gemini Claude and Co Pilot power user I assume that everyone is using generative AI. But just like the internet it could take up to a decade to "catch on". So many people are afraid and suspicious of AI. This is why I have so much respect for our student body, all of you hear said "nuts to that" and made the choice to come and peek behind the curtain. That takes courage. So here are my ten points and some bonuses that I think someone "starting from zero" will value:

Maestro is basically an LLM. Its a specialized LLM and the way it works is amazing but not necessarily difficult. Maybe you think back to the 2000s and say wow that was hard. Now i have to learn a new thing. No. The whole point of using LLMs is that its easy and anyone can do it. You just talk to it like a person. Really! Thats not me being Mr Know it all I promise. If you can use chat GPT you can use Maestro.

Now there is a lot of talk about "prompt engineering" this is when youre using AI to code. All this means is that you actually understand the task youre asking the machine and can give it a more specific prompt. The media makes it sound like anyone using an LLM needs to "engineer their prompts". Pfffft! Just talk to it! For 99% of your tasks with any LLM that doesent involve "vibe coding" you just need to talk to it the way you would talk to someone in an email or DM.

If youre a college student you should already have the skills. But the more clear and specific you are the better.

TL;DR- just talk to the ai, if you can make a post on reddit you can use an LLM.

student services is like a combination of putting in a ticket and organically just talking to an LLM. Think of this like the staff at the front desk or the stufent resource building. Your tabs are all buildings around the campus! And reddit is like the Quad!
Learn is the lecture hall
practice is like a modern student library where people come to get tutoring and such.
the home page- Mae (IYKYK) is like youre home room but also your guidance counselor.
The AI isnt a FAQ page. It can "think" ive asked Mae all kinds of stuff! Ive had whole conversations with it that go beyond immidiate school work. Its not just pulling canned responses and boiler plate, its actually responding to you. If you cant find a feature or dont understand how to do something or just have trouble with coursework- MAE can help you. This is the big thing I dont think a lot of people truly have internalized. Seriously. You got a question? Ask it. Youll get an answer faster than Reddit can deliver.
practice and learn tabs both have the ability to remember where you left off. You can close your lessons and practice mid tab come back. If enough time has passed Mae will welcome you back and ask if you need a refresher or a different example.
Mea actually builds its lesson plan every time you start a lesson and you can view its thinking process by clicking the gray rectangle when its done. It will explain how it built your lesson and within what parameters. This is cool because you can see where maybe it has misunderstood something about you and you can talk to it and say "hey mae maybe youre going a little too fast can we go step by step" and it will. Treat Mae like a teacher where youre the ONLY person in class. Also push back when Mae gets something wrong or takes something too literal. This is how it learns and delivers a better experience for you.
a lot of older people think python IS the Meastro ai. Its not. Real python had to be typed into a terminal on a machine that has the correct library. You will learn about this eventually. Mae will actually help you install a workflow later on. But in the beginning you might get the impression like oh wow python IS the ai. No. Just no. I dont want you to be intimidated when you have to install things and go through folders and stuff. If you dont already know about this stuff i would reccomend not worrying ahout it until it becomes relevent. This whole point is likely irrelevent for the business track. Think of the lesson terminal as a an emulation of a web terminal. It can test and run code but its not the sams as actually having a proper terminal. Its the same difference between going to a vocational medical program and having a "lab" where you do medical stuff to dummies and actually having to give someone an IV in the emergency room. But much lower stakes!
Folder-phobia and tech illiteracy is not an "old person" problem and this needs to die. Its something that a lot of different people in different age groups and demographics are and will be dealing with. Being 20 years old doesent magically make you a tech whiz. And it talent/skill will not disappear on your 30th 40th 50th or even 90 birthday. I used to work with people with dual diagnosis behavioral and mental/developmental disorders. And both my grandparents had dementia to different degress. What i find interesting is while their memory will go things theyve developed muscle memory for wont necessarily go away. My grandpa forgets all kinds of random stuff. But he can still use his remote control and his tablet and he can still cook amazing New Mexican food. My grandpa cant use modern technology like a laptop or smartphone because he was never able to make it a part of his routine. It forever got stored as new information so its just not built into his muscle memory. But he can get on the tablet and open solitaire.

If my grandpa can do this at this stage in life then we can all over come any hurdle or obstacle that arises in our learning.

Millennials are getting older. We are still good at tech because we were born at a specific time in history where we had to survive the "end of history" (the Y2k era) and adapt to and build the 21st century. There's this myth that boomers dont understand technology and a lot of older people think whatever current generation of 20 year olds are computer geniuses. This isnt true. In fact Gen Z is struggling in the job market right now. By and large they can use fancy interfaces and social media and do it quickly. But the average zoomer and the average boomer actually have a lot in common when it comes to tech illiteracy that the average millennial has been spared from. This is "folder phobia" and tech illiteracy. You might be able to flip out your phone take high resolution photos and share them to 10000 followers. Is that "good at technology" though? The thing is we merged all these tasks and machines into one thing so last decade we had the myth that millennials are all tech obsessed. And in the 2020s we started saying that Gen Z are the new tech wizards. But none of these myths mean anything when a gen z kid cant use the printer or when your Gen X boss freaks out because he locked himself out of the company computer and thinks he got fired. (I saw this happened before)

Gen Z came up at a time when everything is in the cloud and you can instantly share things via blue tooth and air drop. And boomers and Xers on average waited so long to embrace the internet that by the time they got online the average person simply didnt need to use folders anymore.

And modern tools like co pilot and homebrew can install things for you. And open files for you and even create files and folders and this is actually really bad because the average everyday person might not understand folders and stuff anymore. But folders are still very necessary for coding. Every program you make is gonna be saved and a back up needs to be saved. And youre gonna have to share it on Github and my advice is learn how to navigate every inch of your computer. Play with your settings. Learn the hot keys and learn different swipes for your trackpad. Get a mouse if you need to. Whatever you need to do to use that machine to its full potential.

Bonus: become an LLM power user.

Think of your favorite LLM as a diary or journal that talks back. Just start using it. "Well hey, Jack, I was born in 1968 and in my day we talked to actual people face to face"

Well listen, Moe, if youre an engineering student with a degree FROM an ai University then youre already an Ai bro. Embrace the dark side! We are Borg! (im kidding maybe you older folks will get the reference.

Its nothing like that. But googling stuff is kinda like a back up now. Everyone is using things like LLMs and tools like SIRI to massively cut down on "research time"

Being an engineer in 2016 is like your constantly googling stuff. But now in 2026 and beyond? Youre talking to chat bots. And the chat bots are NOW beginning to show you their sources thanks to human data annotation gig workers.

Super Bonus:

Look into data annotation. This is a skill college students all should have. Back when streaming was new when I was in junior college theyd pay students to make subtitles for netflix and youtube and stuff like that. Now they pay students and others to do whats called data annotation. This helps reduce ai hallucinations. This is great because you will get in the habit of sourcing everything. If you were born in the 20th century you definitely have this skill set. Gen z and elder alpha cohorts will NOT have this skill set unless they were lucky and went to a school that specifically taught it. So I strongly reccommend this for under 25s but also just for anyone that needs more money. Im not endorsing any particular websites or promoting them nor getting paid to do so and this is just a small point im making but as a poor college student this can help a lot and not be entirely irrelevent to your studies. Talk to one of those LLMs I mentioned and do your own research. Theres some safe and legit programs out there that pay people to look at ai chat logs and cite the sources and teach the ai to be more professional or academic.

Anyways guys I hope some of this stuff helps. And remember it doesent matter where youre at now. What matters is where you're headed and as long as you keep moving forward that's ALL that matters. Good luck!