Using AI mentors to make decisions and solve problems

Top-level consultations are rare and expensive. As you climb the ladder of success, it is difficult to find mentors at your level. The higher you go, the more specialized your problems become. A mentor must have scars and stripes from his walk. A mentor is someone who transforms their life experiences into functional wisdom and genuine empathy. The problem is that the demand for quality mentoring significantly exceeds the offer. The worst part is that your circle of mentors is limited by factors such as language and location.
What if you could turn to the wisest and most experienced people in history to solve modern problems? Can AI replace a tribe of human mentors? Let’s check it out.
Melian dialogue Thucydides is about negotiations between the Athenian Empire and the island of Melos during the Peloponnesian War. Athens demands the surrender of Melos, claiming that this power gives them an advantage in international relations. Melos responds with moral arguments, defending his sovereignty and self-determination, but is ultimately defeated.
Think of it as an ancient example of diplomacy and realpolitik. If you were a Melothian leader, what would you do and whose advice would you want to hear? Perhaps you ask the most sought-after experts in communications, negotiations and decision making: People like Marshall Rosenberg (author of Nonviolent Communication), Chris Voss (author of Never Split the Difference), and Annie Duke (author of Think in the Bets).
First, find an AI tool that enables a dialectical relationship between you and your dream team. LaptopLM is a winner because it can use 50 pieces of contextual resources and create fake podcasts. In this case, we will start by downloading the PDF versions of the Melian Dialogue and the above-mentioned books.
Second, suggest to NotebookLM something like this: “I want the authors of Never Split the Difference, Think in the Bets, and Nonviolent Communication to discuss and debate the Melian Dialogue.” The answer you receive should shed light on each expert’s approach.
At this point, create an audio review using the laptop manual. This will be a conversation between two AI hosts who delve deeper into the topic of your choice. Try connecting the dots and thinking orthogonally. Package complex information into a digestible and enjoyable format.
Now it’s time to 1) evaluate what these experts would do if they were you, 2) what each expert would say about your current plans, and 3) how each expert could improve your approach. Use a prompt like this: “I want summaries of the approach that Rosenberg, Voss, and Duke would have taken in The Melian Dialogue, couched in actionable, practical advice.” Feel free to add your own tips and experiment with this process.
Finally, decide whose advice to listen to. Prompt NotebookLM: “Evaluate which experts would be best at acting in the Melian Dialogue, and indicate which strategies would actually be counterproductive.” To make this truly impactful, tell us what these experts would say if they were you. Try asking a prompt like this: “What would each author say in the Melian Dialogue in terms of their argument?” You’ll end up with a list of fake quotes and logical points that you can adapt into conversations or copy/paste into emails.
In this experiment, we turned to modern thinkers to solve an ancient problem. But this process also works in the opposite direction. For example, a Ukrainian leader might see how Genghis Khan, Hannibal and Yi Sun-Shin would wage a modern war against Russia. A US political candidate might ask the last 10 presidents to create campaign platforms based on the latest national analysis of voters’ priorities. A CEO in India might ask the most successful unicorn founders of the last decade how they would strategize on customer acquisition and fundraising in Silicon Valley. The possibilities are endless.
Luke Kim is an advanced technology operator and investor building multi-million dollar ventures in artificial intelligence and Web3. He lives in the USA and previously headed the blockchain startup accelerator at the University of California, Berkeley.