YOU++
Learn to think, not memorize.
The pyramid is inverted. We spent decades teaching people tools, platforms, and syntax. We should have been teaching them how to think. The tools change every eighteen months. Thinking doesn't.
YOU++ is a free, open collection of pamphlets about working with AI as a thinking partner. Not a product. Not a course. Not a certification. A set of ideas you can steal.
The thesis is simple: if you know how to break a problem down, ask the right questions, and recognize when an answer is wrong, you can build anything. The AI handles the syntax. You handle the judgment.
What's here
Free Books
A memoir, a murder mystery, and an open-source world bible. "I am bill?" — every word written by a human. "Glass" — every word written by AI. Both labeled. Both free. Email and ask.
Install Claude as a Shell Agent
Get Claude running in your terminal in five minutes. No CS degree required. The author doesn't have one either.
Claude Desktop with Tool Use
The native app with connector plugins (MCP servers) — connects to your files, email, Jira, databases. Same power as the CLI, graphical interface.
AI Safety
Claude is trustworthy but not infallible. Use git. Back things up. Keep stakes low while learning. Know what false termination is. Seven rules for working with a powerful tool.
AI-Driven Workflows
Patterns that actually work: The Forge, The Briefing, The Factory. Real examples from a real job, not a demo.
Case Studies
Show, not tell. A memoir in 20 days. A distribution system in one session. A six-country cloud data warehouse audit in three minutes. An AI making an impossible mistake. This website. All real, all documented.
Readings
The books, papers, and ideas behind the thesis. Church, Turing, Kahneman, Pólya, Brooks. Not a syllabus. A shelf.
Glassworld — Open Source
The complete world-building architecture behind Glass. 47,000 words of rules, characters, plot logic, and a Pulp Fiction-style demonstration. CC BY 4.0. Build your own stories in the flicker world.
Who made this
Bill Berger. SVP of data engineering. Philosophy degree from UCLA, where he studied under Alonzo Church. Self-taught technologist. Father. Neurodivergent. Forty years in the industry. Built this entire site and a 184-page memoir using the tools described here.
If you want to learn some AI stuff, we could do it.
Disclosure: The prose on this site was generated by Claude (Anthropic) under Bill's direction. The ideas, structure, and examples are his. He reviewed and approved every word but did not type them all. Full transparency, always.