Top-tier advice is scarce and expensive. When you climb the ladder of success, mentors at your level are hard to find. The higher you go, the more specialised your problems become. A mentor should have the scars and stripes of walking the walk. A mentor is someone who transforms their lived experiences into functional wisdom and genuine empathy. The problem is that demand for quality mentorship far exceeds supply. Worst of all, your pool of mentors is limited by factors like language and location.
What if you could access the wisest and most experienced people in history to solve modern-day problems? Can AI stand in for a tribe of human mentors? Let's test this out.
The Melian Dialogue by Thucydides is a negotiation between the Athenian empire and the island of Melos during the Peloponnesian War. Athens demands Melos's surrender, arguing that power gives them the right of way in international relations. Melos makes moral arguments in return, defending their sovereignty and self-determination, but ultimately suffers defeat.
Think of this as an ancient case study in diplomacy and realpolitik. If you were a Melotian leader, what would you do and whose advice would you want? Maybe you'd query the most sought-after experts on communication, negotiation, and decision-making : People like Marshall Rosenberg (author of Nonviolent Communication), Chris Voss (author of Never Split the Difference), and Annie Duke (author of Thinking in Bets).
First, find an AI tool that enables a dialectic relationship between you and your dream team. NotebookLM is the winner because it can take 50 pieces of contextual assets and generate fake podcasts. In this case, we'll begin by uploading PDF versions of Melian Dialogue and the aforementioned books.
Secondly, prompt NotebookLM with something like this: "I want the authors of Never Split the Difference, Thinking in Bets, and Nonviolent Communication to discuss and debate the Melian Dialogue." The answer you receive should illuminate each expert's approach.
At this point, create an Audio Overview through the Notebook Guide. It'll be a conversation between two AI hosts who delve into your topic of choice. Try connecting the dots and thinking orthogonally. Package complex information into a digestible and enjoyable format.
Now, it's time to 1) assess what these experts would do in your shoes, 2) what each expert would say about your current plans, and 3) how each expert would improve your approach. Use this sort of prompt: "I want concise bullet-points on the approach that Rosenberg, Voss, and Duke would have taken in The Melian Dialogue phrased as actionable and practical advice." Feel free to add your own prompts and play with this process.
Finally, determine whose advice to take. Prompt NotebookLM: "Rank which experts would perform best in The Melian Dialogue and state which strategies would actually be counteractive." To make this truly actionable, reveal what these experts would've said in your position. Try a prompt like this: "What would each author say in the Melian Dialogue in terms of their reasoning?" You'll end up with a list of fake quotes and logical points, which you can adapt in conversations or copy/paste into email communications.
In this experiment, we accessed thought leaders of today in order to solve an ancient problem. But this process also works in reverse. For example, a Ukrainian leader can see how Genghis Khan, Hannibal, and Yi Sun-Sin would've handled modern warfare against Russia. A US political candidate can ask the past 10 presidents to create campaign platforms based on the latest nationwide analysis of constituent priorities. A CEO in India can ask the most successful unicorn founders from the past decade, how they would strategise customer acquisition and fundraising in Silicon Valley. The possibilities are limitless.
Luke Kim is an operator and investor in frontier tech, building multimillion-dollar ventures in AI and Web3. He's based in the US and previously led the blockchain startup accelerator at UC Berkeley
What if you could access the wisest and most experienced people in history to solve modern-day problems? Can AI stand in for a tribe of human mentors? Let's test this out.
The Melian Dialogue by Thucydides is a negotiation between the Athenian empire and the island of Melos during the Peloponnesian War. Athens demands Melos's surrender, arguing that power gives them the right of way in international relations. Melos makes moral arguments in return, defending their sovereignty and self-determination, but ultimately suffers defeat.
Think of this as an ancient case study in diplomacy and realpolitik. If you were a Melotian leader, what would you do and whose advice would you want? Maybe you'd query the most sought-after experts on communication, negotiation, and decision-making : People like Marshall Rosenberg (author of Nonviolent Communication), Chris Voss (author of Never Split the Difference), and Annie Duke (author of Thinking in Bets).
First, find an AI tool that enables a dialectic relationship between you and your dream team. NotebookLM is the winner because it can take 50 pieces of contextual assets and generate fake podcasts. In this case, we'll begin by uploading PDF versions of Melian Dialogue and the aforementioned books.
Secondly, prompt NotebookLM with something like this: "I want the authors of Never Split the Difference, Thinking in Bets, and Nonviolent Communication to discuss and debate the Melian Dialogue." The answer you receive should illuminate each expert's approach.
At this point, create an Audio Overview through the Notebook Guide. It'll be a conversation between two AI hosts who delve into your topic of choice. Try connecting the dots and thinking orthogonally. Package complex information into a digestible and enjoyable format.
Now, it's time to 1) assess what these experts would do in your shoes, 2) what each expert would say about your current plans, and 3) how each expert would improve your approach. Use this sort of prompt: "I want concise bullet-points on the approach that Rosenberg, Voss, and Duke would have taken in The Melian Dialogue phrased as actionable and practical advice." Feel free to add your own prompts and play with this process.
Finally, determine whose advice to take. Prompt NotebookLM: "Rank which experts would perform best in The Melian Dialogue and state which strategies would actually be counteractive." To make this truly actionable, reveal what these experts would've said in your position. Try a prompt like this: "What would each author say in the Melian Dialogue in terms of their reasoning?" You'll end up with a list of fake quotes and logical points, which you can adapt in conversations or copy/paste into email communications.
In this experiment, we accessed thought leaders of today in order to solve an ancient problem. But this process also works in reverse. For example, a Ukrainian leader can see how Genghis Khan, Hannibal, and Yi Sun-Sin would've handled modern warfare against Russia. A US political candidate can ask the past 10 presidents to create campaign platforms based on the latest nationwide analysis of constituent priorities. A CEO in India can ask the most successful unicorn founders from the past decade, how they would strategise customer acquisition and fundraising in Silicon Valley. The possibilities are limitless.
Luke Kim is an operator and investor in frontier tech, building multimillion-dollar ventures in AI and Web3. He's based in the US and previously led the blockchain startup accelerator at UC Berkeley
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