[cousin_it]

Yeah, this is pretty funny. Maybe the simplest version is an "AI secretary" that will have its own email address, and also will search the web for people to connect to (or other AI secretaries). Once something is promising, it'll forward stuff to my actual inbox. It seems like a thing that'd be really easy to demo, or maybe some startups are already doing this, I'm too lazy to look and definitely too lazy to build it.

[dennisy]

I am not sure I get the full workflow or use case here, are there many people out there looking to make more connections (outside of dating)? I ask genuinely as I have been knocking this idea around too - but I am just not sure the use cases are as compelling as the technology.

[majormajor]

There are a lot of people who complain about it being hard to make friends as an adult.

Products exist for this, but I'm not aware of any that have hit a home run. I think the biggest barrier is closing this gap: I personally want more friends since I don't have the social skills to reliably go proactively make a friend randomly out of a newfound acquaintance or friend of a friend. So I can go to a meetup, say, of people with similar interests. But I would need the aforementioned social skills - that I don't have - to convert those people into recurring "real" friends. Dating apps work better here because there's a much higher incentive for me to put myself forward in a way I'm not otherwise comfortable with. Vs "eh I have some friends already, I don't want to be awkward or embarrass myself."

I become increasingly convinced that it's not a problem that can be reliably directly intermediated for you. The best friendships I have that I was introduced to electronically came from recurring discussions around a shared interest on a site or forum or channel that then became a friendship. Trying to force things to go the other way is far harder. It either needs to be indirect OR you need to have an extremely high level of social skills (in which case you aren't likely to need this app in the first place).

Those recurring online discussions? That's social skill practice. That's putting in your reps. The Reddit or HN format is one of the harder ones for that; there are many better ones, though. But ultimately it all comes down to work and practice. In the same way that there isn't a pill or phone accessory that will build your muscles or teach you another language without putting in the work.

[pmarreck]

I'm a parent and between work and childrearing, my free time has essentially completely evaporated. But I'd still like to meet people (as potential friends) or learn of new business/job opps that are aligned with my values and desires. (Or, not judging here, romantic or sexual opps.)