Pre-Work
Two short exercises to make sure your accounts are working and give you a little mental warmup before we jump in. They preview the two modes you’ll use throughout the course: AI as thinking partner and AI as building partner. Share your results in #hds-general on Slack.
< Data Detective >
Use Claude to crack open a real CDC dataset and find something a policymaker needs to see
< Hello World >
Build your personal profile page and ship it to the internet with Claude + GitHub
Anchor Listening
These two podcast episodes are the intellectual foundation of the course. Listen to both before Day 1—they preview the mindsets and methods you’ll use every day of the sprint.
Lenny’s Podcast
Lazar Jovanovic, a professional vibe coder at Lovable, breaks down the tactics and workflow that let him ship production-quality products using only AI. Covers parallel prototyping, PRDs as sources of truth, and the 80/20 rule—spend 80% of your time planning, 20% building.
The AI Daily Brief
Nathaniel Whittemore (NLW) breaks down the mindset shifts and practical tactics for learning faster by pairing directly with AI models. Covers vision-first thinking, dump-then-organize, AI as mirror not oracle, and handoff documents for preserving context between sessions.
Click “Listen anywhere” to open the episode in whichever podcast app you prefer—it auto-detects. Each episode is about an hour; listen at 1.5× if you’re short on time. We’ll reference specific ideas from both episodes throughout the sprint, so take a mental note of anything that surprises you.
What Comes Next
Starting Day 1, each day gets its own page — learning objectives, exercises, PRD layers, and build targets. Use the day buttons above to navigate as the course progresses.
See you Monday at 10:00 AM EST on Zoom.