Category: Tutorials
You are in the right place if you want a lesson you can follow, not a glossary and not a product homepage. This shelf holds most of the articles on Analytics Made Simple. Two paths sit inside it on purpose. SQL is the database path: you have rows, and you need to ask a question without exporting another spreadsheet. AI is the tool path: chat products, open-weight models, and the jobs those tools are actually good at. Other tutorials land here when they teach a skill that does not belong on a narrower shelf.
A category page is the pile. A series page is the path, with a place to start and an order. If you open a tag or page 2 of this list, you are in a filing cabinet. The lesson is the article, or the series hub that lines the articles up.
Where to start: if the pain is a table, open the SQL series and use the first part on that page. If the pain is a model name or a chat tool, open the AI category and pick the product you already have on screen. If you are not sure which job you have, open Learn and choose the track that matches the work, not the logo.
I care about privacy and running things myself
Closed chat, hosted open weights, and local models are different privacy lanes. Strip identifiers before any paste. Local is optional; it is not free of responsibility.
Grok for writing, explaining, and brainstorming
Use Grok to draft, explain, or brainstorm, one job at a time. Put audience, facts, and forbidden words in the brief, then run a two-minute name and number…
Photos, screenshots, PDFs, and multimodal basics
Use Gemini on photos, screenshots, and PDFs with structured prompts and a safe upload ladder. Demand quotes or [UNCLEAR] labels, and verify surprising claims in the source before…
- 10 min read
Synthetic data: when fake data is the ethical choice
Use synthetic or mock data for demos and training when real production copies would expose people. Keep purpose, proportionality, and honesty on the label. Real data still needs…
xAI Console and API: only if you build apps
Use the xAI Console only when an app needs a key. Export XAI_API_KEY, hit one Responses request, cap retries, and keep chat-plan money separate from API credits.
