What’s Tim Taking? Data Dominance, Mileage Magic, and Functional Fitness

Welcome back to What’s Tim Taking? Volume 8—your bi-weekly hit of new discoveries, practical tools, and ideas I can’t stop thinking about.

Newsletter I’m Reading

I promised myself this wouldn’t become an AI newsletter—but here we are.

A friend recently pointed me to the writing of Tomasz Tunguz, founder of Theory Ventures and former Google engineer turned VC. His newsletter is sharp, digestible, and regularly sparks a few mental detours.

His post, Why Data is More Valuable than Code, hit especially hard. Tunguz proposes that while AI and SaaS apps share architectural bones, AI’s power lies in contextual data, not the code itself. SaaS follows predictable (deterministic) rules. AI workflows are driven by models that adapt based on richer, more dynamic data inputs. In his words: “The better the data, the better the workflow.” Catchy.

His idea stuck with me, not because it’s revolutionary, but because it reframes the stakes. The battleground isn’t the algorithm anymore. It’s the schema. The company with the cleanest, best-organized, most accessible data wins. To extend Tomasz’ quote, “the better the data, the better the workflow, the better the insights.”

One data architecture to rule them all.

Travels Tools & Hacks

Coming off a two-week Eurotrip, I listened to an episode of The Tim Ferriss Show featuring Chris Hutchins, a points and miles wizard who made me question every dollar I spent.

His stories sound absurd—like buying $300K worth of gold bars at Costco just to flip them the next day for cash at a higher spot rate. But the guy knows how to game the system and build luxury travel experiences from thin air.

Some tools I’ll be trying next trip:

1. AwardTool.com: a comprehensive tool for searching for award flights using points and miles. What sets it apart is its “degrees of freedom” system, allowing simultaneous search across multiple origin/destination airports and date ranges. PS, this one seemed to get the highest praise from Hutchins.
2. Points Path (Chrome Plugin): a browser extension for Google Flights that shows points redemption options. Meets you right in your browser and comes with an opinion—it will tell you which deal is better.
3. Rooms.aero / Seats.aero: tools for searching hotel award and flight award availability, presented in a spreadsheet-like format.

We used points for a few things, like a rental car in Milos and one hotel night in London—but clearly, we left value on the table.

WTT Workouts

After eating and drinking my way through Europe, I came home about 10 pounds heavier—and not the muscle kind. So I’m back on the grind, this time with more functional movement baked into my strength work.

Enter: the kettlebell.

I picked up a 35-pounder for home, and while it’s a bit ambitious for all-purpose use, I’m getting there. I’ve been combining kettlebell movements with core circuits: jump rope, box jumps, and ab work in 3-5 round supersets.

Try completing 100-120 reps of this exercise over 20 minutes and tell me you don’t melt into the floor. It’s brutal…in a good way.

Quote of the Week

“Two is one and one is none.” – Old military adage, commonly attributed to US Navy Seals

When things go south, you need a Plan B. Whether you’re traveling, writing code, or simply stocking up at the grocery store, remember to build redundancies. Anticipate that problems will occur. Leave yourself some room for failure—backup plans remove the dreaded single point of failure. It can be the difference between a hugely rewarding experience or a highly stressful scenario.