u/Important_Coffee_845

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
Personal opinion: Before building artificial minds, you have to map the weird, glitchy nature of actual human minds.
Haidt is no stranger to controversy, the original cover was banned in several countries. This book is highly reasonable but it makes people big mad. Gen Z is the latest generation to boo him on stage at a recent commencement speech, you may have seen this in the news. The activist crowd gave him cancel culture vitriol typically reserved for the likes of Richard Spencer or David Duke He is not part of that crowd, not even close. Haidt talks about a concept called the elephant and the rider and has been a vocal critic of helicopter parenting. This book got me through junior college in 2017 and it's even more relevant today. I have a copy given to me by a former Anthropology professor who was just so great to talk to. I treasure this book and it's super relevant to AI hallucination, bias and heuristics. If you want to piss of your Gen Z doomer nephew and your boomer parents at the same time this is the one to bring to Thanksgiving.

• The AI Connection: This is the ultimate guide to Alignment and Data Bias. Haidt proves that human morality isn't driven by cold logic, but by evolutionary, emotional intuitions (the elephant) followed by rationalization (the rider).
• The Takeaway: If you train an LLM on human internet data, you aren't training it on pure reason; you are training it on deep-seated moral foundations (Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, Liberty). Understanding Haidt means understanding why "perfectly objective AI alignment" is a myth.

The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence — Carl Sagan

Personal Opinion: This is just a smart person book in general. Dude went on a social media bender before social media was a thing. This book covers so much and I personally believe reading it will increase your IQ by a full standard deviation.

• The AI Connection: Long before deep neural networks, Sagan was looking at the physical scaffolding of human thought—triune brain theory, the evolutionary leap of language, and how information density scaled from DNA to brains to books.
• The Takeaway: It keeps you grounded in what natural intelligence actually is. It's a reminder that human consciousness is a messy, layered evolutionary stack, not a clean, optimized architecture built from scratch.

The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI — Ray Kurzweil

Personal Opinion: If you don't know who Ray Kurzweil is you need to read this one NOW. I read his work and watched his earliest Youtube videos when I had just graduated as a teenager. Now we are in the Great Re-Skilling and I'm not at all surprised about A.I because I feel like people like Ray Kurzweil were shouting "AI is around the corner" for twenty years or more and everyone was more concerned about the Kardashians and Mormon Housewives or Sunday Night Football. This is the person you should have been following on social media and this is the book you should've been reading when Chat GPT dropped its first major update. Don't be surprised by technology again, read this book.

• The AI Connection: Kurzweil’s 2024 follow-up to his classic The Singularity Is Near moves from abstract math to the concrete reality we are living through right now.
• The Takeaway: Exponential growth curves are incredibly unintuitive for the human brain. Kurzweil forces you to think about the endgame: what happens when scaling laws hit the point where biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence converge? It’s the roadmap for the world you'll be engineering in a few years.

The Art of War — Sun Tzu
Personal Opinion: When this isn't on a top 5 reading list I keep scrolling. This isn't just classic or canon it's basically scripture. The only thing I'd recommend over this is the Holy Bible itself but this list is AI focused. This is the oldest book on this list. Literally no one was thinking about AI when it was written but Sun Tzu tapped into the principles of System Optimization when he wrote this, not just warfare. Every billionaire has a tattered, coffee stained copy in their desk, I promise you.

• The AI Connection: Compute is expensive, talent is scarce, and the race for AGI is an open geopolitical and corporate battlefield.
• The Takeaway: Systems architecture is only half the battle; the rest is deployment strategy. "Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting" is the ultimate philosophy for building efficient, elegant solutions that bypass massive, bloated legacy tech stacks altogether.

The Patriots- Winston Groom (NYT best-selling author of The Allies and The Generals which I also highly recommend when you get closer to American History 101)
Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the Making of America.

Personal Opinion: I don't care if you're a legacy American or an H1-B or the son/daughter of recent arrivals. These are the minds who shaped our nation. Everyone has their political opinions but don't fall for the trap of demonizing history. These were some of the greatest minds of their time. The American Constitution is often misunderstood and heavily skewed because people don't understand the history.

• The AI Connection: The US Constitution is, at its core, an open-source operating system for human society. The Founders were systems engineers designing a state machine to prevent deadlocks (tyranny) and race conditions (mob rule) while managing human greed as an explicit constraint.
• The Takeaway: AI engineers are the new constitutional architects. When you write guardrails, reward functions, and governance protocols for autonomous agents, you are dealing with the exact same game-theory problems Madison and Hamilton wrestled with.

Outliers: The Story of Success — Malcolm Gladwell

Personal Opinion: This is the guy who popularized the 10,000 hours theory, that you have to put in 10 thousand hours to master a subject, although this has been over simplified and taken out of context. I strongly recommend reading this book if you haven't yet, honestly it's one of those where you should've read it already. Self Mastery is the most important mastery.

• The AI Connection: The "10,000-hour rule" is essentially human pre-training. But Gladwell’s deeper point is that talent doesn't exist in a vacuum—it requires the right environment, the right historical timing, and massive amounts of deliberate, focused iteration.
• The Takeaway: Mastery in AI isn’t about being a certified genius; it's about putting in the raw mileage with the keyboard. To truly understand deep learning, you have to spend the time watching models fail, tweaking hyperparameters, and building an intuitive sense for the data that a textbook can't give you.

This next one may prove to be controversial for several reasons but it's one of the most important books of the 21st century and I would recommend reading it especially if you have elitist attitudes about college or low self esteem due to those attitudes. After reading Haidt I think anyone can read the next book and appreciate it even from a progressive perspective.

The College Scam- Charlie Kirk

Personal Opinion: Most of the skills I learned didn't come from college. I see a lot of people putting themselves down because they "failed" at college 2 or 3 times and ended up at Maestro. I myself simply couldn't afford college and even junior college was far too expensive when I had no parental support and graduated during the most brutal recession since the Great Depression. All I was ever told is "pick yourself up by your boot straps" so I... did. I refuse to apologize for that and you shouldn't either. This book isn't anti college. Charlie didn't hold a degree but he finished over 31 online classes and whatever you feel about his organization; he built that. He was only 18 and I was 19 when I joined TPUSA. I wasn't even conservative! I don't think he was either, that came later. When he died I mourned like I lost a good friend even though I only shook his hand two or three times and barely knew him. There aren't a whole lot of individuals that have this kind of impact so young and so fast. I would encourage anyone swept up in political bias to pair this with Righteous Mind. If I could find a comparable book from someone firmly on the left I'd read and recommend it so I challenge those of you with leftist inclinations to try this book and give me a comparable pick that I can try from YOUR perspective. College is not a time to be coddled, it's to explore and to challenge your most firmly held beliefs.

The AI Connection: This book tackles institutional gatekeeping, skyrocketing debt, and the decoupling of a traditional four-year degree from actual economic value. In the AI era, this disruption is happening at a 10x pace. Traditional tech curricula are often obsolete by the time a freshman reaches their senior year because the underlying tech stack changes every six months.

• The Takeaway: For an AI engineering student, this text forces a critical question: What is the true ROI of my education? It champions the shift toward self-directed mastery, skill-first portfolios, and building practical systems over collecting passive academic credentials. It keeps you focused on output rather than compliance.

What are some books and authors that are on your reading list as an undergrad AI student?

Fiction works too, even manga, just anything that is a book that can be read. No streaming shows, playlists, albums or games, not that those mediums aren't fantastic and highly important!

The only rule is to do what I did and give your personal opinion, The AI Connection (even if it just helps you de-stress and get your mind right) and your takeaway from the book.

I've been seeing quite a few posts trying to help people. I did make a mistake I thought I got in yesterday but I was wrong. However I was absolutely right- you CAN get this discount without verifying school schedules or anything. Stop blaming Maestro saying that they aren't doing this or doing that- it's not them it's Microsoft- trust me. Anywho-

So anyone saying they can't get the student discount is wrong. Now I did run into a snag where the Microsoft chatbot said you have to verify your school attendance and what not for a 10% discount. THAT is not what I'm referring to.

SO you have to make an account just with your student email. It has to be the .edu email that maestro gives you NOT the email you enrolled with. DO NOT use any other email or you're gonna be banging your head against the wall.

Click the link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/college-student-pricing

Keep in mind make sure you're already signed in with the student email in the top right corner and DO THIS on a laptop to spare yourself the grief. Or at least use chrome browser not just through google app or whatever on your phone. I had a heck of a time.

So when I did this It automatically sent me into checkout when I hit it. I then had to verify my student email and give them my payment info. Remember to make a calendar entry for the date they will bill you so you can end the agreement the day before. Your credit/debit charge will NOT be charged for this transaction but in a full year it will be for any usage going forward, but this 12 months will be FRE. So keep note of that debt if you keep going past that date. .

You're welcome for anyone this helped. Premium is DOPE you're gonna love it.

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:

1. 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.

2. 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!

3. Learn is the lecture hall

4. practice is like a modern student library where people come to get tutoring and such.

5. the home page- Mae (IYKYK) is like youre home room but also your guidance counselor.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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!

10. 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!