Five Idle Thoughts of a Summer’s Day, Vol. 3

**David Gardner** (0:00)
Summer days have a way of making us slow down, reflect and muse over the little things in life.
I'm in the mood this week for heading out where my whimsy takes me, as the novelist, Dorothy Sayers, might have put it, it's a sampler, not of five stocks this time, but of five thoughts. So grab your lemonade, find a comfy spot in the shade, and join me as we explore five idle thoughts of A Summer's Day, volume three, only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:38)
It's the Rule Breaker Investing podcast with Motley Fool co-founder, David Gardner.

**David Gardner** (0:46)
And welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing. Happy summer to my fellow North Americans, many others around the world. Of course, it is the depth of winter in various other places for our Southern Hemisphere foolish friends. But I'm not there. I'm here, in this case, in my house in Washington, DC., where, as I speak, the high today is 89 degrees Fahrenheit. And I think the humidity is about 89% as well. And so these things all say to me, summer. So indulge me, if you will, wherever you are, with some idle thoughts of a summer's day. This is volume three, which means this is now a go-to, at the height of summer, Rule Breaker Investing podcast tradition. I did this same podcast, volume two, I think the same week of last year, generally a shorter podcast for us, because, I mean, it's hot. Thanks for joining me this week. Before we get started, I want to mention we have our first two authors in August, and I want to mention them to you. I've already lightly sprinkled their names and books in, but now I'm making an official author in August number one is Ti Nguyen, author of the wonderful book, The Score, How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game. I'll be delighted to be joined by what I consider to be the world's foremost philosopher on the subject of games. Operating out of the University of Utah, Ti Nguyen, who is a past multiple time guest on this podcast, has written a spectacular book. I completely recommend The Score to all humans, and I hope you'll get a chance to read it, maybe even advance of my interview with him in a couple of weeks. Our second author in August is Vasant Dar, an AI pioneer, professor at New York University, somebody who has worked in the field on AI, programming AI, for example, to try to make money inside of seconds for Wall Street hedge funds, but he's done a lot of academic work as well. He's been there all the way through. Vasant Dar wrote a wonderful recent book called Thinking with Machines. So yes, our topic will be AI, and he is author in August number two. There will be a third week where I have an author in August. I have yet to name that person. I'm excited about multiple possibilities. But for anyone new to this podcast, August every year has been dedicated to authors of books that I admire, that I think you'll really enjoy. Wide range of different topics, sometimes fiction. This time, pretty much all non-fiction for this August. So I want to make sure I cue you up. T Nguyen, The Score on August 5th. And then Vasant Dhar, Thinking With Machines, August 12th. Speaking of the near future, even nearer is next week's Mailbag. That's right, it'll be your July 2026 Rule Breaker Investing Mailbag. And this time, I think, let's go back to something we did 10 years ago. Let's go back into the future with the possibility for those interested. If you're hearing me right now, I would love possibly to take some Mailbag items this month or next as voicemails. That's right, like your human voice. Anybody who's listened to this podcast for any amount of time knows that typically I've just been reading these as letters coming in. But I went back and listened to one of my early Mailbags 10 years ago where I was taking audio files. I think that'd be really fun to do next week or if you like, next month. So a reminder, our email address at Rule Breaker Investing is rbi at fool.com. You can certainly still submit your questions, thoughts, poems, challenges, whimsical thoughts of your own to this podcast by typing out a text, just like people have always done, rbi at fool.com. But starting right now, you could also drop us a sound file. Just record off your phone and attach it to an email and send it to rbi at fool.com. Definitely include your name and of course, where you live, where you're calling in from, and maybe we'll do some voicemails on our July 2026 mailbag next week. All right, idle thought of a summer's day number one. Let's talk about AI. Have you heard about it? Do you know what it stands for? Artificial Intelligence? Are you invested in some companies that might be using AI? Is your own company using AI? If your own organization isn't, are you all of a sudden feeling FOMO or behind the curve because you're not using AI? Of course, this topic ever since a few years ago, ChatGBT surprised us all by giving us legit instant answers to almost any question we could ask. And even when it hallucinated, it was kind of cute doing so, although sometimes you could get in trouble. And if you're an academic, you definitely didn't want to cite your AI as a source because you can't fully trust it. I would even say today that's the case. But ever since that Halcyon day a few years ago, AI has been an ongoing topic of discussion. And I thought for my idle thought of a summer's day, I would just share some of the ways that I've used AI in just the last 48 hours. I realize some of you listening to me, don't really quote, use AI, end quote. You either might not have access, or you might not have interest. But I'm somebody who very regularly for multiple years now has been using AI. And I just want to share this might be a TMI moment for me on this podcast. But I'm just going to share with you some of the ways that I've used AI just very recently. And it's just to show the range of how you can use AI. Maybe I spark a thought for you. Maybe via mailbag next week, you can spark a thought for me. I'd love that. So hyper locally, wherever you are, especially while traveling, asking your favorite AI tool, what might be interesting to you nearby, all of a sudden gives you a tour guide, a direction you never had before. I literally did this. I realize this may sound sad or embarrassing. I took a picture of my shirt and trousers and asked what jacket and tie I should wear.