Hello, Reader,

Welcome to Day 1 of my 2025 Blog-a-Day Challenge! Starting anything new is always the hardest part, and I’ll be curious to see how many others have taken up this challenge and made it past Blog #1.

As I embark on this new series, I’ve spent some time thinking about how to structure my posts and what I’d like to do differently this time around. Here’s the plan I’ve come up with for now:

Weekly Schedule

• Monday–Thursday: Research, writing, and sharing discoveries from my work.
• Friday: Podcast Day – The Forensic Lunch is coming back, and I’ll be launching a new podcast called Surviving the Breach.
• Saturday: Solution Saturdays – Answers to last week’s Sunday Funday challenges.
• Sunday: Sunday Funday – The classic weekly challenge returns! Get ready to lose focus on your day job as you dive into solving puzzles for prizes and internet glory.

This structure isn’t set in stone; I’ll adjust as needed to find my groove. For those of you taking on a similar challenge, here’s my first piece of advice: Keep it flexible. Avoid rigid plans that might discourage you from writing. The key is to stay consistent and keep posting daily.

Today’s Topic: Optimizing AI Prompts for Better Assistance

Like many of you, I’ve been fascinated by the rise of AI and its current applications. While today’s AI might not be the true artificial intelligence we’ve dreamed of, it’s undeniably powerful. These models have effectively “read” the internet, providing incredible resources for learning and problem-solving.

One thing I’ve found particularly useful is creating tailored prompts for getting help with new tasks, especially when working with cloud services, programs, or websites. Early on, I noticed inefficiencies in how I approached these tasks. I’d ask for instructions, only to lose context mid-way, scrolling back to figure out what went wrong or what the next step was. This wasted time and often left me frustrated.

To address this, I developed a prompt structure that transforms AI into a patient tutor, guiding me step-by-step while keeping the focus on the exact step I’m working on. Here’s the prompt I use:

The Prompt

“Walk me through step by step on [thing you want to do] that will be used to [purpose of the task]. I will need your help with A, B, C, and D. Only provide one step at a time so I can ask questions and proceed when I say ‘next.’”

Use Cases

Here are a few scenarios where this prompt has been particularly effective:

• Configuring Kubernetes clusters
• Setting up Visual Studio Code for a project
• Configuring Cursor (an AI code editor) for a project
• Walking through steps to misconfigure setups for lab testing

Each time, this approach turns the AI into a patient, helpful tutor—far more interactive and effective than just following a static tutorial or Stack Overflow post.

Example: Setting Up a VS Code Workspace

Here’s how the prompt works in action:

Prompt:
"Walk me through step by step on creating a new workspace in VS Code that will be used to write a Python project. I will need your help in preparing the workspace and installing the right extensions so you can integrate with the IDE to create code and files. Only provide one step at a time so I can ask questions and proceed when I say ‘next.’”

By breaking tasks into manageable steps, this method ensures the AI stays aligned with your progress and adapts to any challenges or errors you encounter.

Share Your Thoughts!

I hope you find this approach helpful! If you’ve discovered better prompts or have tweaks to improve this one, leave a comment—I’d love to hear your ideas.

Here’s to an exciting year of blogging and learning together!