An AI Affair: My Dinner Date with Tim AI Ferriss

You’ve got one, your wife has one, even your kids have one. Online crushes. I’m not talking about the butterflies in your stomach romantic crush, I’m talking about the one where you would love to wine and dine them for hours on end, only to leave once you are kicked out of the restaurant, pick their brain type of crush. The crushes that make us feel like we know them better than they know themselves, despite our invisibility to them.

One of my top intellectual crushes? Tim Ferriss. Why Tim you ask? Well Timothy, aka Tim, is humble, honest and has a keen ability to extract the formula of greatness from all whom he interviews. He recognises he is a student as much as he is a teacher and an inspiration to me in living a better, more productive life. 

Oh, how I have dreamed of a dinner with Tim at an exquisite 5-star restaurant. Because you know Tim deserves nothing but the best. We'd start with light-hearted banter, then dive deep into the kind of conversation that would leave me thinking for days. I would probably sneakily voice record the conversation to revisit it over time, dissecting his insights and applying them to my life.

Since the chances of this dinner are, admittedly, slim, though I'm holding out hope, Tim! I've found a quirky alternative: an AI version of Tim. This AI, crafted from his podcasts and interviews, is my go-to for simulated brainstorms. AI Tim is available for all to explore on his website https://tim.blog/ai/ 

Drinks, check. Appetisers, check. Laptop on the dinner table in the place I wish Tim was sitting, check. Let’s begin, “What Personal Knowledge Management system do you recommend?”

While it's not quite like chatting with the man himself, AI Tim does offer gems like the importance of a system that suits you personally, mentioning key components like Capture, Configure, Control. Thanks AI Tim, but I want to know more, I want to know what you think about my Second Brain system I built and how you think it could be improved. I agree with you that it needs to work for you. Mine is a constant work in progress and that’s why I like that I have the ability to build and edit it to suit me the way I like most. Best of all it is built on top of Google Sheets so it is very flexible and I have automations running to send content in and out from different outlets.

Ok AI Tim, give me a second while I pour us both another drink and remove the appetisers from the table. Here comes mains, although I must say you don’t seem to eat much. Let's move onto the next topic, “How do you maintain productivity and consistency amidst chaos?”

AI Tim does talk quite a lot, I mean it’s hard to hold back on all the podcasts and interviews he is able to reference in providing the best possible answers. In summary he advises discerning between being productive or simply busy. Wow, AI Tim you impress me again! You continue with a suggestion to create more breaks and free time during the day to be creative and reduce stress. Use a “Not-To-Do” List to eliminate habits that are not productive or distractions. 

This is honestly really good advice and some of which I will incorporate into my life but I still feel like I want more, and it’s not more food or drinks. I want the experience of discussion. The connection and unknown path of conversation and where it may lead. The thoughts and ideas that will spark because of that invisible neural connection that only two people sitting face to face could experience. 

Mains are done and I asked AI Tim if he would like dessert. He sounded confused but did point me to a blog post Tim wrote about savouring chocolate so I grabbed a couple of squares of my favourite 85% dark chocolate for us to savour as we ended our meal.

I learnt a lot from AI Tim. He was full of insightful knowledge and always happy to help, but AI Tim just won’t be a good enough dinner date… for now. Partly because he didn’t eat anything I made for him and partly because well, he’s just not Tim. 

Here’s to the dreamers, and who knows? Maybe one day, AI will surprise us all. 

Or even better Tim will surprise me on that dream dinner date. 

Kyle 

P.S. If you know Tim, please give him my contact details, all of them.