AI guides and practical learning paths
Browse 34 source-checked guides covering AI foundations, advanced workflows, and hands-on projects. New readers can follow a roadmap in order; experienced readers can choose a specific problem below.
Start with the foundations
Learn the vocabulary, limits, tool-selection habits, prompting methods, and verification checks every AI user needs.
Build stronger AI systems
Move from isolated prompts to grounded files, custom assistants, image and video workflows, agents, automation, and a personal AI stack.
Ship a working prototype
Follow project-based tutorials for PDF summarisation, browser extensions, debugging, credential safety, and responsible deployment.
Latest guides
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![[Step 3-A-2/3] Giving Your Bot a Brain — And Keeping It in Its Lane (Office Worker Edition)](https://lifetechhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/EW-Step3-A-2-of-3-300x169.png)
[Step 3-A-2/3] Giving Your Bot a Brain — And Keeping It in Its Lane (Office Worker Edition)
Add an AI provider to a Telegram bot with scoped commands, asynchronous requests, privacy-aware testing, input and output limits, refusal boundaries, and safer failure handling.
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![[Step 3-A-1/3] Your First Telegram Bot That Actually Answers — Office Worker Edition](https://lifetechhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/EW-Step3-A-1-of-3-300x171.png)
[Step 3-A-1/3] Your First Telegram Bot That Actually Answers — Office Worker Edition
Build a first Telegram bot with BotFather, Python polling, token-safe configuration, private-chat testing, group privacy guidance, and practical troubleshooting for duplicate processes.
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![[Step 2-A-3/3] Making It Yours — Icons, Task Buttons, and a Tool You’ll Actually Use (Reseller Edition)](https://lifetechhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/EW-Step2-A-3-of-3-300x169.png)
[Step 2-A-3/3] Making It Yours — Icons, Task Buttons, and a Tool You’ll Actually Use (Reseller Edition)
Customize a Chrome extension with branded icons, three reseller task buttons, persistent results, debugging guidance, and realistic API-key security limits.
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![[Step 2-A-2/3] Making It Read the Page and Talk to AI (Reseller Edition)](https://lifetechhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/EW-Step2-A-2-of-3-300x169.png)
[Step 2-A-2/3] Making It Read the Page and Talk to AI (Reseller Edition)
make your AI requests from the service worker, not from code injected into the web page.
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![[Step 2-A-1/3] Your First Chrome Extension That Actually Loads — For Your Side Hustle (Reseller Edition)](https://lifetechhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/EW-Step2-A-1-of-3-300x169.png)
[Step 2-A-1/3] Your First Chrome Extension That Actually Loads — For Your Side Hustle (Reseller Edition)
📌Expert Workflows · Step 2: AI Chrome Extension · Edition A (Reseller) · Part 1 of 3 🎯 What You’re Actually Building Here InStep 1some of us built…
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![[Step 1-A-4/4] Structured JSON Output & Shipping the Tool (Developer Edition)](https://lifetechhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/EW-Step1-A-4-of-4-300x200.png)
[Step 1-A-4/4] Structured JSON Output & Shipping the Tool (Developer Edition)
Learn how to turn AI PDF summaries into reliable structured JSON, recover malformed model output, validate fields, and ship the workflow as a Python CLI.
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![[Step 1-A-3/4] Chunking, Token Limits & Surviving Timeouts (Developer Edition)](https://lifetechhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/EW-Step1-A-3-of-4-300x150.png)
[Step 1-A-3/4] Chunking, Token Limits & Surviving Timeouts (Developer Edition)
Learn how to chunk long PDF text for AI summarization, estimate token limits, prevent context-window errors, and survive API timeouts with retries and exponential backoff.
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![[Step 1-A-2/4] Extract Text From PDFs — Detect Scans and Encoding Problems (Developer Edition)](https://lifetechhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/EW-Step1-A-2-of-4-300x200.png)
[Step 1-A-2/4] Extract Text From PDFs — Detect Scans and Encoding Problems (Developer Edition)
Learn how to extract text from PDFs with Python, detect scanned or garbled output, validate the result, and use OCR when a file has no searchable text layer.
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![[Step 1-A-1/4] Build an AI PDF Summarizer — Environment Setup & Your First API Call (Developer Edition)](https://lifetechhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/ChatGPT-Image-Jul-20-2026-04_29_28-PM-300x200.png)
[Step 1-A-1/4] Build an AI PDF Summarizer — Environment Setup & Your First API Call (Developer Edition)
Build an AI PDF summarizer with Python: create a secure project, store your API key safely, test the connection and diagnose common errors step by step.
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The Expert Workflows Curriculum Roadmap: From Learner to Shipper (Level 3)
This is the master roadmap for Expert Workflows — the hands-on, project-based track that follows AI Essentials and AI Deep Dive.
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Step 8: Capstone — Build Your Personal AI Stack and Apply It Responsibly
Build a personal AI stack, choose a realistic income path, document your skills and plan your first 30 days with practical privacy and verification guidance.
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Step 7: Vibe Coding — Build Your First Real Tool Without a CS Degree
Learn how beginners can use AI-assisted coding to build, test and review a small personal tool safely, with practical limits for security, privacy and maintenance.
How these guides are prepared
Life Tech Hack is edited by G. Troy. Guides are checked against official documentation and primary sources where facts can change. Practical limits—including privacy, API credentials, costs, copyright, and AI hallucinations—are identified before readers act. AI tools may assist drafting or organisation, but the final article is reviewed and edited before publication.
See About Life Tech Hack for the editorial approach, or report a correction.