Let’s face it, you’re bursting with wisdom, at least when it comes to some areas of life. And chances are, you have various things you’d like to accomplish, both large and small. But, as with everyone, there are limits to your knowledge and perspective.
Moreover, aside from the missing nuggets of information that you may know to look for as you strive to actualize a wish, overcome a difficulty, or gain a handle on something, there may well be critical gaps in your knowledge or understanding that you would only become aware of through the right types of back-and-forth conversation with the right people.
Likewise, there are undoubtedly individuals who would become aware of specific deficiencies in their own grasp of certain pivotal matters by interacting with you, if they had the opportunity.
Conversations in which such discoveries take place are often the kind in which a person both overcomes a blind spot and gains concepts or particulars that prove essential in things like avoiding a disastrous mistake, gaining a more empowering outlook, substantially increasing income, mending a relationship, or even turning a dream into a reality!
In today’s tech-driven world, where there is so much we are able to access, and perhaps opine or comment on, with just a few key strokes, it’s easy to lose sight of the importance of real dialogue. And in our increasingly fragmented culture, it’s easy to forget that worthwhile things in any realm of life are rarely achieved efficiently (or at all) in isolation or without exposure to fresh new vantage points.
Fortunately, you don’t have to go it alone or proceed with scant human help as you pursue goals, tackle problems, hunt for opportunities, strive to come up with ideas, ponder life’s big questions, search for optimal resources, endeavor to maintain a positive mindset, grapple with unfamiliar concepts, scout for pitfalls, struggle to better understand people, dig for hard-to-find information, devise strategies, or wrestle with important decisions.
As unlikely as it may seem at times, kind, thoughtful, bright, helpful and even altruistic people abound throughout society. In the right context, many would be happy to chat and share some of their insights or relevant expertise with you (just as you would be happy to do for your fellow first-rate humans where possible) and perhaps ultimately partner up, collaborate or otherwise connect with you on either a personal or professional level.
We created the Both Wise app primarily to foster the types of one-on-one conversations that are most likely to result in people’s lives being enriched, either from the dialogue itself, or in some cases, from the connection that it leads to.
We want to make it easy for you to have productive, meaningful, or just plain fun conversations with individuals who share some of your interests, possess the knowledge or qualities you're seeking, or who may be likely to benefit you and/or be benefitted by you in some way, either directly or indirectly.
And we want to enable you to engage in those interactions, which may be brief or in-depth, without feeling any pressure and without having to deal with any of the negative, uncomfortable or objectifying aspects of many traditional social media and networking platforms.
The Both Wise app, which is compatible with both iOS and Android, can be a highly effective asset for considerate adults of all ages and backgrounds looking to do any of the following:
• meet new people for personal or professional reasons
• obtain feedback on an idea or on something they’re creating
• chat with someone about a topic of shared interest
• receive personal, professional or practical advice from someone with the right background
• experience the satisfaction and mental health benefits derived from helping other people
• talk with someone who has dealt with a particular challenge that they themselves are facing
• find a collaborator, mentor, business partner or investor
• find business or employment opportunities or someone to hire
• gain motivation or encouragement
• promote their services/content/personal brand or increase their audience on other platforms
• get recommendations from people with similar taste, interests, or other commonalities
• find individuals to join their team, band, project, mastermind group, etc.
• have a respectful, civil, productive conversation about a social or political issue with someone whose belief system or frame of reference may be very different from theirs
• help build a movement to reverse the current societal trend toward increasing polarization, alienation and volatile extremism
• be recognized and rewarded for their best human qualities rather than just for their past achievements, their social media savvy or their undeniable good looks
• explore humanity and occasionally have a positive impact on the life or day of another person
And with Both Wise, you can pursue the above objectives WITHOUT being distracted or brought down by
• endless displays of vanity
• negative snap judgments
• trolling and incivility
• deluges of content that makes you feel like you’re missing out
• a risk of reputational damage
• a likelihood of appearing desperate (which, of course, you’re not)
• anxiety about your popularity on the platform
• excessive amounts of time taken up devising effective ways to begin conversations or mulling over how to end a correspondence without creating negative sentiment
• feelings of rejection and the awkwardness associated with attempting to initiate interactions with people you’ve never met who may not perceive you as worth engaging with
What sets Both Wise apart is not only the absence of many of the undesirable aspects of traditional social networking, but the multiple levels on which the platform brings out the best in its users. See the FAQ section for a more thorough understanding.
Q: Does Both Wise use a matching algorithm?
A: Yes, a truly unique one. But just as importantly, we provide a framework that promotes fruitful communication between matched users. After all, even if an individual you’re conversing with doesn’t have the precise knowledge you’re after or doesn’t fully possess your level of zeal toward something, that person may, in the course of the right type of interaction, clue you in on an exciting possibility, help you gain clarity on an aspect of an issue you’re seeking help with, share a valuable insight pertaining to a different sphere of your life, broaden your perspective, or provide an emotional boost, perhaps without even realizing it.
Q: Is communication on the platform anonymous?
A: While it is possible to remain completely anonymous on Both Wise, and private conversations always begin anonymously, users who wish to become highly visible on the platform can potentially do so, but only if they conduct themselves in a positive way during their interactions.
Although Both Wise is intended to help people gain many of the same types of things that they might from traditional social networking, it is designed to do so in an equitable, collectively beneficial, and often more expansive manner. Many of the unique aspects of the platform exist to make it a comfortable and useful alternative to the myriad of digital spaces that, despite their upsides, often privilege those who are far from the most deserving and breed superficial, judgmental, narrowly self-interested and objectifying mindsets to varying degrees.
Q: How does communication between people on Both Wise tend to differ from communication that takes place on other social media or networking platforms?
A: Users of Both Wise are incentivized to treat each other with kindness, to talk WITH, rather than AT, each other, to be of help to each other where possible, and to regard each other as whole human beings rather than simply as followers, political adversaries, or potential consumers/clients/connections, etc. Conversations can center on almost anything, including matters that are highly personal, intellectually abstruse, practical, or just plain whimsical, trivial and fun. And, to make things extra easy, the app provides functionalities to assist users in beginning and ending conversations.
Q: Can users who are interested in the professional services or online courses of other users enter into financial transactions with them through the app?
A: While a percentage of interactions on Both Wise may lead to various types of hirings or purchases, the app does not provide a method for sending payments to people, and it should not be thought of as a freelance marketplace, online course marketplace or professional directory. Users who happen to be knowledge workers or service providers of any type, who choose to accept questions pertaining to their areas of expertise, are expected to communicate with the intention of being every bit as helpful as they typically would when giving a free consultation or when writing a particularly illuminating blog post etc., without pushing their services or products. They can, however, promote their offerings and include links to them on their bio pages.
Also, users who are particularly helpful and benevolent toward those they converse with may have the option of being featured in the app’s Hall of Super Sages, which is accessible to all users. This is one of several avenues by which users may come to find out about the business offerings (while forming positive impressions) of other users.
Q: Is Both Wise free?
A: Yes.
Q: How did the idea for Both Wise come about?
A: It began with an attempt to answer the following questions: 1) Why does social media, despite its many obvious benefits and enormous potential, so often seem to bring out the worst behavior and/or feelings in people and, on balance, to impede more than enhance people’s ability to attain the kinds of lives they want, while increasing, rather than reducing, the amount of division in society? And 2) How could a platform be structured so as to reverse those deleterious impacts and conceivably have a positive ripple effect within the social media landscape? The idea evolved over a period of several years. The development of the app took several more.
Q: You’ve listed many things that the app can be used for. Wouldn’t apps that are tailored to fewer purposes necessarily be more effective tools for accomplishing those objectives?
A: Both Wise is not intended to render any existing platforms obsolete but rather to provide people with a refreshingly human and personal way of networking. The simple answer, however, is no. One of the reasons why traditional social networking platforms are often not as effective as they could be has to do with what they emphasize through the way they're structured. Many possibilities are never realized when people are operating within the types of digital environments where superficial factors become overshadowing and where psychological tunnel vision is induced.
When an individual spends time on an app meant to help its users find a romantic partner, a business connection, etc., that individual will typically get little if anything out of the experience unless or until the goal is reached (which in some cases never happens or takes years). Many of the people whose faces we swipe past on various apps for various reasons are people who could benefit us in one way or another and who would do so if we were to encounter them in the right setting at the right time.
The Both Wise platform is structured so that, more often than not, one (or ideally both) of the participants in a conversation will gain in at least some manner from the interaction. Users are incentivized to look for ways in which they might impact each other positively and, where appropriate, to serve as bridges between the people they interact with on the platform and other people they happen to know who might have the knowledge, qualities, etc., that the former may be seeking.
(Additional reasons for answering the above question in the negative should become apparent if you read this section in its entirety.)
Q: Do users have any control over what types of people they get to converse with on the app?
A: Yes. Users who wish to can enter search criteria focusing on personal attributes or on expertise primarily. But not all of the individuals with whom a user converses will match that user’s search criteria to the same extent. There are a variety of factors that will determine each match, including personal interests and even behavior on the platform. One of the incentives for users to be respectful, courteous and as helpful as they can toward those they converse with is that doing so will increase their algorithmic rating and thus increase the likelihood that the people with whom they get to interact will be ideal matches.
Q: Is one of the app’s purposes to help people stay in touch with friends and family?
A: No, not really. It’s more about increasing the number of people with whom the users experience meaningful human-to-human connection.
Our mission is to help people expand their social and professional networks, improve their lives, make a difference in the lives of others, and ultimately spend less of their time engaging in electronically mediated communication and more of it getting fresh air, having adventures, developing their talents and enjoying good ol’ in-person interactions. We believe that social media should inspire, facilitate and enhance, rather than replace, those activities. That’s one of the reasons why we actually place a limit on the number of days that any two users can converse with each other on the platform.
Another reason for limiting the duration of interactions is to prevent the uneasiness that can arise when one of the parties does not want to maintain the correspondence while the other has an intense desire to do so and to perhaps take things to another level. Concerns about the prospect of such circumstances can often cause people to be less kind or helpful than they would otherwise be. Still, users of Both Wise have the option of sharing their bio pages, which may include their contact information, and can update each other through their news feeds.
Q: Is there any way to look for a particular person by name on the app?
A: Not directly, but the search critetia functionality includes a connection wishlist feature by which a user can request (and, thereby, greatly increase the likelihood) that he or she will be the recipient of a conversation starter submitted by a specific person, such as someone whom that user may be interested in working for or perhaps a celebrity, influencer or public figure who is presently a user or who eventually becomes one.
Of course, while it is certainly understandable why many would be excited at the prospect of having a conversation with someone whom they regard as a “very important person,” we encourage users to keep in mind that there is often just as much, if not considerably more, value in forming connections with individuals whose paths have not–or have not YET–led them to great renown.
Incidentally, because of the anonymity which the platform provides, those users who are in the public eye (for any reason) can converse with non-public figures without the latter having any preconceptions about them or subjecting them to the types of comments, questions or references they’ve heard countless times. And in instances where a public figure chooses to reveal his or her identity to a user who has benefitted from that public figure’s kindness, advice, etc., the uplifted user may be inclined to share the positive experience with the world.
Q: If I can easily afford to hire ample numbers of top service providers to inform me and help me with any personal or professional issues, is Both Wise likely to be worth my time?
A: It isn’t necessarily an either/or situation. In some instances, the person you chat with on Both Wise may in fact be a professional service provider—one whom you may even end up hiring. In other instances, your interlocutor may provide helpful insights regarding the question of whether to hire a service provider or how to go about doing so in the savviest way. And even if you've already hired a professional to help you with a particular matter, there may be plenty for you to gain by taking in perspectives from other people with relevant knowledge. Or, you could focus on just having enjoyable conversations with wonderful human beings who share some of your interests.
Q: Won’t AI chatbots soon make it unnecessary for people to learn from other people?
A: We'll ask an AI chatbot and get back to you. But, seriously, the answer is probably no.
When seeking information from AI chatbots, different individuals asking the same basic questions may get different responses. And chatbots lack a great deal of the highly specialized, obscure, and experience-based knowledge that human beings possess to varying degrees. As useful as they can be, and regardless of the quantity of information they may eventually be able to accumulate, what AI chatbots essentially do is simply present the most common patterns associated with whatever question a person has thought to ask.
One of the main purposes of Both Wise is to effectuate conversations through which a person's landscape of known possibilities, useful concepts and means of effectively pursuing objectives increasingly expands. Such expansion is most likely to occur when individuals converse with those who not only possess sufficient familiarity with a particular subject, which in some cases may be a type of lived experience, but who possess and employ the uniquely human capacity to intuit or draw inferences about a person's mental model and particular needs–that is, the ability to see where someone is coming from.
There are in fact many specific things that human beings are capable of doing which generative AI is simply not, such as providing insights or spotting opportunities based on meaningful understandings of situations and people, helping individuals gain perspective and recognize overlooked positives, reading between the lines and picking up on the significance of things people omit from their statements, making common-sense or abductive inferences, figuring out creative solutions to human problems, determining whether certain types of assertions are true, understanding the emotional or psychological impacts of various things, helping people assess what is in their best interest, and helping people make moral or ethical decisions.
It's also worth noting that, unlike AI bots, human beings–if complying with the terms of Both Wise–will not make things up and present them as true when they don’t know the answer to a question. And, of course, two heads are generally better than one, regardless of whether either or both are employing tools such as artificial intelligence.
Q: Why is it called Both Wise?
A: The name is a play on the words “both ways” and is intended to suggest two-way communication between wise people or people who can help increase each other’s knowledge or wisdom. The platform was conceived as a digital space where people would be apt to elevate, enlighten or encourage each other, in either subtle or substantial ways, while increasing each other’s sense of meaningful connectedness to the world around them.
Through its algorithms, functionalities and structure, the app maximizes the likelihood that users will be able to essentially barter useful knowledge and insight, while it also increases the ease with which they can form the types of social or professional connections they may desire.
Q: What if I’m not exactly a paragon of wisdom or a credentialed expert on any subject but just an ordinary person who hasn’t done all that much and isn’t particularly sophisticated or knowledgeable?
A: Users of Both Wise are free to chat with other users about anything they’d like and to do so in a completely unsophisticated or jocular way, as long as they don't violate any of our terms. And unless you indicate, by tapping a button, that you have expertise on a particular subject (as opposed to indicating that you would simply be happy to chat about that subject with someone who may or may not know any more about it than you do), no one will expect you to be anything other than pleasant and understanding.
That being said, we at Both Wise don’t believe that there is any such thing as an ordinary person or an ordinary life. Your particular background and life experiences, including the good (and bad) decisions you’ve made, have rendered you unique and have provided you with knowledge about an array of matters and with insights that many people lack and could benefit from.
In fact, there are probably things that you are able to do with ease because of information or understandings you possess, which you completely take for granted, that many individuals yearn to have the ability to do with the same ease–or at all. These may include specific proficiencies or even an ability to feel comfortable in a particular situation.
One of the hallmarks of those who are truly wise is that they have the humility to recognize that they can learn valuable things from just about anyone if they approach their interactions with the right intentions and frame of mind. We each have more to gain from and to offer others than we could possibly realize. Moreover, sometimes just providing a little emotional support or engaging in a friendly chat about a light topic can do more to improve the most scholarly person's day than providing heavy, intellectual conversation can. And epiphanies have a way of springing from the least likely places.