Call Summary: Paris Update, Faithfulness Discernment, and Vetting Lessons

Overview

New Year's catch-up call where Tim shared updates from his Paris visit with his atheist cousin, revealing the challenges of maintaining faith boundaries in secular environments. Gary shared insights on Mike Ajouz's approach ("fighting spiritual war with flesh"), lessons learned from vetting collaborators, and updates on various projects including Ida's microschool vision and truth management work.

Key Topics Discussed

Tim's Paris Experience with Cousin

• Living Situation: Tim staying in a small studio with his atheist cousin in Paris
• Value Differences: Cousin is "100% atheist" with different sleep schedules, interests (thrift stores, parties), and lifestyle
• Washing Machine Incident: Cousin ran laundry at midnight, disrupting Tim's sleep
• Faith Integrity: Tim didn't compromise on praying at meals; cousin noticed and asked about Christianity, even tried it once ("definitely didn't stick")
• Family Dynamics: Tim navigating carefully due to family financial history where cousin's family helped during a crisis but now seems to expect reciprocity

Tim's Character Growth

• Hospital Story: Ron mentioned to others how Tim finished work while hospitalized with an IV in his arm - "I think it's pretty badass"
• Discipline Maintained: Kept up French studies and workouts through Christmas and New Year's despite distractions
• Dating App Temptation: Cousin's quick Bumble dating made Tim question downloading apps again; concluded "I don't want to fuck around. Seriously."

Mike Ajouz Analysis: Fighting Spiritual War with Flesh

• Gary's Observation: "He's trying to fight the spiritual war with flesh"
• Context: Mike is used to investing in tangible things (votes secured, Harvard DEI campaign funding)
• Problem Identified: "He cares so much about what atheists think"
• Apostle Delmar Contrast: "You'll never find Apostle preaching about politics. Because he's just so in the spiritual realm"
• Culture War Reflection: Gary questioning whether culture war activism is his calling, despite its viral potential

Somali Fraud Narrative Critique

• Subtle Anti-Black Vibe: Gary noted Christians on X getting excited about Somali fraud exposure with "not so subtle anti-black vibe" masked behind "just fighting fraud"
• Not Spiritually Resonant: "This kind of activism... doesn't spiritually resonate with me"
• Party Politics: "Think that Satan is not working within the Republican Party?"

Sam Greger Vetting Lesson

• Failed Transaction: Gary gave thousands of dollars for custom attire; after 8 months, zero produced
• No W9 Response: Sam not responding to tax documentation requests
• Source of Introduction: Came through Johnny Rapp, who has "his own issues. Flakiness and not knowing who he is and mental health issues"
• Root Cause: "Resistance to Christ. Fundamentally, which I think is the root of these issues"
• New Standard: "I have no patience for these freaking Gen Z or atheists anymore. New age."
• Atheism Consequences: "There's no idea of faithfulness. One of the most important definitions of faithfulness is sticking to what you commit to... commitment to a covenant"

Faithfulness and Atheism Framework

• Key Insight: "If you don't believe anything is sacred, it's hard to see a random dude that you recently met as holding your commitment to them as a meaningful thing"
• Tim's Response: "If you can do this for God, you absolutely can do this for a man"
• Tim's Growth: Now using this to discern people around him; actively working on his own punctuality

Content Consumption Warning

• Incentive Problem: "What is the motive of a content creator? It's not to make it so they answer your questions and then you're done"
• Curiosity Loop: "The incentive of the content creator is to keep you on a curiosity loop. Keep coming back. Keep not having resolution"
• Bad Christian Content: Gary stopped watching channels that expose bad Christians - "How is this benefiting me at all? This is just junk food"

Ida Villavicencio and Daily Spirit

• Daily Spirit Return: Coming back tomorrow (January 5th)
• Ida as Feature: Gary considering featuring Ida's testimony as example of overcoming
• Ida's Background: Born with feet going sideways, required special shoes; overcame many sicknesses with mother never giving up on God's healing
• Theodicy Question: "Makes you ultimately wonder. Why does God even allow situations where miracles needed. But above my pay grade"

Truth Management and Living Corpuses

• Document Fatigue: "I'm increasingly less bullish on documents and more bullish on living corpuses"
• AI Integration: "AI is the super critical piece here, because you feed it a bunch of junk and it's like, oh, we can add this to chapter four"
• Ida's Book Repo: Created repository for Ida's book "Awakening the Kingdom Within" that grows with each conversation

Texas Christian Microschools Alliance

• Ida's Vision: Membership organization for private/micro schools
• Services: Free website, calls with Ida, potential student counseling
• Not Main Thing: Gary enjoying it but keeping as side project

Schoolhouse with Ron Roberts

• Waiting for Validation: If Ron gets verbal commits from a billionaire, Gary will draft partnership agreement
• No Pure Speculation: "I'm not doing this pure speculation"
• Learned Lesson: "I've learned a lot to do more vetting"

Travis Oliphant Contract

• Alpha Non-Compete Check: Tim flagged need to review Alpha Schools contract for non-compete clauses
• Comparison Point: Ron didn't have contract with Alpha, just invoicing
• Tim's Perspective: "Two weeks of pay is worth a lot less than your IP. A million times less"

Living Situation Updates

• Gary's New Place: Moved in with Dawson, seems like a good guy, excited about Daily Spirit
• Blender Incident: Gary spun blender attachment outside cup, made a mess

Key Quotes

On Fighting Spiritual War with Flesh:

"He's just so used to investing money in very tangible things. Like votes. Vote secured. Yes or no? Make people hate the Harvard president... A lot of this feels... He did like very tangible things that like atheists could appreciate. And that's his problem. I think his problem is that he cares so much about what atheists think."

On Faithfulness and Atheism:

"I do see atheism having real consequences. There's no idea of faithfulness. And one of the most important definitions of faithfulness is sticking to what you commit to. That's like one of the definitions. Your commitment to a covenant, essentially. So if you don't believe anything is sacred, it's hard to see a random dude that you recently met as holding your commitment to them as a meaningful thing."

On Content Consumption:

"What is the motive of a content creator? It's not to make it so they answer your questions and then you're done... The incentive of the content creator is to keep you on a curiosity loop. Keep coming back. Keep not having resolution."

On Tim's Growth:

"You got to remember that you said that. You shouldn't stay on for an hour... I'm pointing it out. This is much small detail, but I'm just saying I'm learning."

Tim on Gratitude:

"I trust you more than I would trust anybody. I mean it with my soul."

Tim's Prayer Excerpt:

"For him being the inspiration that he is for me. For him being the spiritual brother that he is for me. For us just being on the same page and to understand each other like that, and for me personally, to have a person to understand me like that on this path. Is absolutely priceless."

Action Items / Takeaways

• Gary returning with Daily Spirit tomorrow (January 5th), considering featuring Ida
• Tim to check Gary's Alpha Schools contract for non-compete clauses
• Gary applying stricter vetting standards for future collaborators
• Applied AI Society truth management work starting this week
• January 20-29 locked in for Tim's visit
• Both committed to discipline, self-control, and reducing impulsiveness as signs of trusting God

Closing Prayer Themes

• Gary's Prayer: Gratitude for new year, Tim's wisdom, Dawson, peace as indicator of right relationship with God, self-control over impulsiveness, trusting that life is worth taking seriously
• Tim's Prayer: Gratitude for courage to follow God, for Gary as inspiration, for connections that led through Gary, asking for courage, discipline, and love as guiding forces in 2026