How I use Gemini Gems to master new skills faster than ever

I no longer go to Google search when I want to learn something. Instead, I hop straight into Gemini. Search used to lead me down rabbit holes and an endless stream of new Chrome tabs. Gemini helps me stay on track so I actually get to learning. Within Gemini, I’ve been using Gems to set up coaches, loaded with context that I give them during set-up, and I’m finding this to be one of my favorite ways to use Gemini. Let’s take a look at a few of the Gems I use the most.

I currently work with three Gems on a regular basis: one for studying Spanish, one for learning to code, and one for learning how to make music and write songs. For each of these, I set them up with some context including what experience I have with the skill so far, some details on how exactly I want to apply the skills I’m looking to learn, and what type of learning has worked for me in the past.

Up until I started using Gems, I mostly stuck with dedicated apps like Duolingo for learning Spanish. These continue to work well for me, especially for getting the basics of the language down. Duolingo’s language learning path, for example, has been iterated on over and over again, and it has the data from millions of users to know what works for learners and what doesn’t. The learning pathway is good, especially for a beginner who doesn’t know where to start, and it does a great job of holding your hand as you delve into your learning.

This learning journey can only get you so far, though, and sometimes stepping off that pre-determined path can unlock new levels of learning. This is where my Spanish Coach Gem comes into the picture. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, as you get in those language learning apps, my Gem allows me to forge my own learning in a way that applies directly to me and what I’m studying. This approach may be a bit more manual and a bit less convenient than button-smashing multiple-choice questions in Duolingo, but no one said learning a language would be easy.

With my Spanish Coach Gem, I mostly use it to expound on the bite-sized lessons I get in Duolingo. A recent lesson included some sentences using imperative verbs. I haven’t gotten to that part of the learning pathway in Duolingo yet, but seeing it used in a lesson piqued my interest; I didn’t want to wait for Duolingo to get me there. I wanted to learn more about the conjugations, then apply that learning right there in that moment. I went to my Gem and explained the situation, and right there on the spot, I was presented with a very succinct explanation of imperative verbs and their conjugations, along with some irregular verbs. My Gem even proactively went back and forth with me, practicing some conjugations to make sure I really understood everything. As you can see, my Spanish Coach Gem isn’t replacing my dedicated learning app — it’s enhancing it.

My Music Coach Gem is fulfilling a bit a different role for me. I don’t use dedicated learning apps for music — unless you count the piano course in Duolingo, which I sometimes dabble in — and truth be told, I’ve long struggled with where to start in the world of music. Do I start with lyrics? Do I need voice training? Do I learn a DAW? The list goes on. So when I created my Music Coach Gem, my main goal was to finally take the first steps with something I’ve wanted to try for so long.

I explained some of my goals to my Music Coach Gem: that I’m a total beginner aside from a few voice lessons a little while back, and that I want to focus on writing songs and improving my singing voice. I also let it know that I may want to add in music and beat creation at some point, just in case that helps with the game plan. My Music Coach replied in an instant with a few different options on how I might get started, encouraging me to pick the one that intrigued me the most.

I clearly didn’t go to school for music; this is just a hobby, after all. One of the Gem’s ideas was to first dive into lyric writing on a fundamental level, using a method it says was popularized by a Berklee College of Music professor (Pat Pattison, if you’re curious). Essentially, my assignment was to pick a random object in the room, then write for 10 minutes about the object using all seven senses. Why? My Gem explained that this is a good exercise for writing with descriptive imagery, which translates really well into music. When I’ve attempted to write lyrics in the past, I’d usually just go straight to trying to rhyme words together. In hindsight, this probably lacked intention and didn’t get me very far. I can see why a writing exercise like the one suggested here would be extremely useful to writing music. My Gem nailed it, right from this very first lesson.

Years ago, when I was learning how to edit videos, I dove right into the video editing software. Whenever I didn’t know how to do something, I did some Googling until I found the answer. Little by little, this taught me everything I needed to know to make a career out of editing videos. I’m applying a similar method to learning to code, but this time, Gemini is making my learning even easier.

LLMs like Gemini are getting notoriously good at coding. I’ll be honest, this has caused me to second-guess my desire to learn to code on far too many occasions. But alas, I still want to know how to read my code, and maybe even figure out ways accomplish things with code that perhaps an LLM hasn’t been trained on (a long-shot or at the very least a long ways off, I know, but a guy can dream), so I’ve still been moving forward with learning to code by hand, and my Coding Coach Gem has proved to be very helpful in the process.

I used Android’s official courses for learning the basics of Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, and someday I’ll finish those courses, but more and more, I’m just diving right into the projects I actually want to build. This is how I did it with video editing, and it’s working for me in coding, too. When I run into a problem, I hop over to my Gem for help. It already knows the background of what I’ve done with coding — it’s important to keep that context window up to date — so it knows how to break down concepts in a way that really work for me. If I’m having trouble understanding something, I ask it to come up with similar practice problems, allowing me to really grasp new concepts.

My Coding Coach is the one Gem I’ve started to use less and less, and that’s only because I’m working more in Android Studio now. Earlier on, a lot of the practice problems were handled in a browser-based coding environment. Now that I’m working on more complex problems, I use Android Studio, and with that comes Gemini, baked right into the IDE itself. Instead of pasting a block of code into my Gem when I have a question, Gemini already has the context of what I’m working on within Android Studio. I still think the Gem is a good option, but I love the time I’m saving with everything in one place.

A Gem doesn’t have any long-term memory, meaning it doesn’t use past conversations in answering your current conversation. It only stores the context that you gave it during the initial setup. This seems like an oversight, as the main Gemini app does reference past conversations (if you enable it), and I hope this is eventually added to Gems. This hasn’t been a major issue, but there have been instances where I wished it had this feature.

There is a workaround to this issue. Instead of setting up your learning coach as a Gem, you could just keep a conversation pinned to the sidebar in Gemini. I’ve done this for a few of my long-term projects, and Gemini does a great job at referencing conversations from days and weeks prior. I’ve also never encountered any usage limits doing this, but that’s something to keep in mind if you plan on using this method.

Long before modern AI, the internet already made learning easier, and Gems remove just a bit more friction on the way. The tab overload is gone, replaced by a focused and intentional Gem that will get you where you’re going a lot faster than you likely would with your Google searches. I’ve mainly used Gems for learning, so I’m curious: what ways have you been using Gems? Let me know in the comment section!