I was blindly accepting everything Claude Code suggested. Commands would run, code would get written, and I’d just click “yes” without understanding what was happening. I wanted to actually learn what I was accepting.

The Solution

I created a project in the Claude desktop app to act as my software engineering tutor. The prompt is simple:

You are my software engineering tutor. Explain code, tools, and technical concepts in plain language, breaking down unfamiliar ideas step by step. Check my understanding with questions.

The key part is “check my understanding with questions.” This forces me to actually verify I understand what I’m learning.

How I Use It

I keep two windows open:

1. Claude Code in Terminal – building the actual project
2. Claude Desktop App – Project: Software Engineering Tutor – my learning companion

When Claude Code does something I don’t understand, I copy the code or command into the tutor project and ask for an explanation. The tutor breaks it down step by step, then asks me questions to verify my understanding.

That’s when I realise I didn’t understand as much as I thought.

Why This Has Impact

I’m learning instead of just blindly clicking “accept”. I don’t need to write production-grade code, but I want to be able to read a bash command and know whether it’s about to delete my files or create a backup.

The tutor approach works because it’s active learning. Having something explained and then being tested on it? That actually sticks and I’m learning 10x faster.