Reid Hoffman x John Lilly on why AI won’t replace your network

And, you know, that's true of like

so many of the best relationships I have with people.

It's just there's always more things to talk about and more things to pull on.

Well, and actually partially I think this also describes both of us.

But to kind of do it from, you know, the angle from my side is that part of the reason when I do a first meeting on any recommendation from someone I trust, like even on the Sean, you guys should be, you know, blah.

Yeah.

But then it's like learning.

Like I learned a ton from you, not just that time, but that time and others.

And it was like, oh, this is a really good way of looking at this.

Those are a set of interesting questions about how to do it, a set of variables or frameworks or strategic tools that I hadn't given thought to before.

And I was like, we should keep having this conversation.

But I do remember the first thing, we just started talking, it's like, oh, how do you know Sean? And like, oh, well, do you know this other person? How do you know that person? And I remember the first few breakfasts were always about people.

And that's still actually kind of the way you and I talk with each other.

It was like, oh, what about this person? Have you met this person? And I even remember bringing in my, this is going to show our age a little bit, but I had little boxes of business cards.

And I remember you and I had so many people to talk about and so many people in common, I would just bring them in and I'd just rifle through them and say, oh, have you met this person yet? This person, this person? And that was, I think a lot of the sort of navigating and sort of like trying to understand how each other thought at the beginning, even before LinkedIn existed.

Yes, exactly.

Although, you know, you were one of the probably five first people that I talked to about LinkedIn saying, I've got an idea.

This is the kind of thing I'm doing.

And, and, you know, part of the, as you know, I tease you about it.

But actually, in fact, I tease you about it in a way that is, The actual instrumental thing for entrepreneurs about what they should be doing.

You shouldn't be going to my friend, John and saying, Hey, do you like my idea? That's useless to me, right? It's the, what are the challenges that I'm going to need to navigate with this idea? Why, what, what could blow it up? How should I navigate around it?

Well, what you mean when you say you tease me is you can say, give me a hard time for telling you, I thought it would not work.

Yes,

exactly.

Yeah, which is fine.

And, you know, that's true of like

so many of the best relationships I have with people.

It's just there's always more things to talk about and more things to pull on.

Well, and actually partially I think this also describes both of us.

But to kind of do it from, you know, the angle from my side is that part of the reason when I do a first meeting on any recommendation from someone I trust, like even on the Sean, you guys should be, you know, blah.

Yeah.

But then it's like learning.

Like I learned a ton from you, not just that time, but that time and others.

And it was like, oh, this is a really good way of looking at this.

Those are a set of interesting questions about how to do it, a set of variables or frameworks or strategic tools that I hadn't given thought to before.

And I was like, we should keep having this conversation.

But I do remember the first thing, we just started talking, it's like, oh, how do you know Sean? And like, oh, well, do you know this other person? How do you know that person? And I remember the first few breakfasts were always about people.

And that's still actually kind of the way you and I talk with each other.

It was like, oh, what about this person? Have you met this person? And I even remember bringing in my, this is going to show our age a little bit, but I had little boxes of business cards.

And I remember you and I had so many people to talk about and so many people in common, I would just bring them in and I'd just rifle through them and say, oh, have you met this person yet? This person, this person? And that was, I think a lot of the sort of navigating and sort of like trying to understand how each other thought at the beginning, even before LinkedIn existed.

Yes, exactly.

Although, you know, you were one of the probably five first people that I talked to about LinkedIn saying, I've got an idea.

This is the kind of thing I'm doing.

And, and, you know, part of the, as you know, I tease you about it.

But actually, in fact, I tease you about it in a way that is, The actual instrumental thing for entrepreneurs about what they should be doing.

You shouldn't be going to my friend, John and saying, Hey, do you like my idea? That's useless to me, right? It's the, what are the challenges that I'm going to need to navigate with this idea? Why, what, what could blow it up? How should I navigate around it?

Well, what you mean when you say you tease me is you can say, give me a hard time for telling you, I thought it would not work.

Yes,

exactly.

Yeah, which is fine.