The AI Tools I'm Building to Replace My Spreadsheets with Anish Acharya

All the Hacks: Money, Points & Life

Chris Hutchins

Business, Society & Culture, Education, Self-improvement, Investing, Places & Travel

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

#278: Is AI making it possible for the average person to live a fully optimized life? Chris and Anish swap notes on how custom AI tools are replacing years of spreadsheets, and reshaping the way we work, learn, create, and relate to each other. They dig into why Chris has abandoned OpenClaw, the architecture mistakes almost everyone is making, and what happens when the subsidies on all these tools eventually go away. Anish Acharya is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he leads consumer and AI-native investing. Link to Full Show Notes: https://chrishutchins.com/ai-tools-spreadsheets-anish-acharya/ Partner Deals Bilt Rewards: ⁠Earn the most valuable points when you pay rent Green Chef: ⁠50% off your first month + 20% off for two months with code 50ALLTHEHACKS NetSuite: ⁠Free KPI checklist to upgrade your business performance Mercury: ⁠Manage, move, and grow your money Fora: Become a Fora Advisor today For all the deals, discounts and promo codes from our partners, go to: ⁠chrishutchins.com/deals Resources Mentioned AI tools and platforms Claude OpenAI Codex ChatGPT Gemini Perplexity Computer Cursor OpenClaw Tools Chris is using in his stack CardPointers 1Password Zapier Apple Health Notion Dropbox Travel and points tools Google Flights Seats.aero Roame ATH Podcast #265: I Built an AI Assistant That Works While I Sleep #275: The Custom Everything Era with Kevin Rose Newsletter Leave a review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Email for questions, hacks, deals, and feedback: podcast@chrishutchins.com Full Show Notes (00:00) Introduction (02:08) How Chris Replaced His Award-Flight Spreadsheets With an Agent (04:20) Why Your AI Setup Should Be Platform-Agnostic (07:13) Why Sub-Agents Don't Actually Make Sense (13:29) Skills, Connectors, Projects, and Channels Explained (17:29) Anish on the Two Big Breakthroughs: Coding Agents and Personal Agents (18:29) Zero Marginal Cost of Doing Work (21:01) Will Knowledge Get Less Democratized in the AI Era? (22:17) The Four Layers of Personal AI: Knowledge, Data, Trust, and Connection (24:35) The Black Pill: Do Most People Have Enough Agency for This? (26:29) How Chris Connected His Own CardTool App to Claude (32:07) The Family Video Montage Built From iMessages and Photos (33:51) Reverse-Prompting and Breaking Tasks Into Discrete Steps (36:35) Is AI Making Us More Connected, or Less? (41:45) The Coming Flood of Bill Disputes, Appeals, and Speeding Tickets (44:52) Gemini, OpenAI Apps, and Claude Connectors Compared (47:03) The Hidden Power of Zapier's MCP Server (50:20) Managing Logins and Sensitive Data Without Losing Sleep (53:20) What's Still Not Possible With AI Today (56:56) The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect Applied to AI (01:00:11) The Subsidies Behind Your $20 ChatGPT Plan (01:04:59) Evaluating the Actual Cost of AI Connect with Chris ⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠ | ⁠Membership⁠⁠ | ⁠X⁠⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ Editor’s Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For years, planning any trip meant flipping between Google flights and a couple of award search tools,
0:05.6	putting all those prices in both points and miles into a spreadsheet, and then doing the math to
0:10.8	determine what to book and how to get the best deal. Then a few weeks ago, I built a new tool
0:16.3	that does all that in just a few minutes. It knows my rules, like never suggesting super early flights,
0:22.9	or having a layover unless the savings is really worth it.
0:26.0	And this is just one of about a dozen tools I've built recently
0:29.3	that have collectively replaced all the spreadsheets I use
0:32.7	to dial in pretty much every part of my life,
0:35.3	whether that's travel, health, work, and a lot more.
0:38.7	So today, I'm comparing notes on this setup and the AI tools that power it with my good
0:43.3	friend Anisha Chariah. He's a tech investor at Andreessen Horowitz and a longtime friend
0:48.3	who's been thinking about all this from a different perspective. And we're going to get into
0:52.5	why I'm not even using OpenClaught anymore.
0:54.8	We're going to talk about the architecture mistakes that almost everyone is making.
0:58.4	The case that personal AI is about to give every consumer the kind of optimized life we all dream
1:03.9	about.
1:04.5	And what happens when the heavy subsidies on all these tools eventually go away?
1:09.2	I'm Chris Hutchins.
1:10.0	If you enjoy this episode, leave a comment
1:11.8	or share it with a friend. And if you want to keep upgrading your money points in life, click follow or subscribe. Anish. Yes. We're doing it. Okay. We're doing it. We're doing it. We're doing it. This is a thrill, man. We've done each other forever. I know. I feel like we've been talking about this nonstop. and we haven't sat down to actually put our thoughts to paper.
1:28.2	And so I guess now we're putting it to audio, but in video.
1:30.5	We should give everyone a little bit. talking about this nonstop, and we haven't sat down to actually put our thoughts to paper.
	...

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