What's a "Mind Meld Teaser" Post

23 Apr 2023

I realized today that I don’t write blog posts most of the time. If you were to look at my private notes, for every blog post that I’ve published here, I have probaby 10-20 half baked ideas that would be great to write about… but I just don’t have time to get around to them. Why not? Well, because frankly, writing a blog post is a time risk. If I determine myself to write a post on some Friday afternoon, it’s very possible that I could be signing up for a whole-weekend work task, or even more if it’s really a good post. Some good posts require research and creating proofs. All good posts require lots of time for actually crafting the text and refining it. What’s more, blogging is a rather lonely task. All this preparation I do alone, and that takes me away from time I could be spending around people – which I much prefer.

Well no more! I’m going to try a fun experiment which, I hope, will allow me to get more of my ideas out there and serve as a fun social experiment for engaging with others.

Introducing the Mind Meld Teaser Post

Here’s how this works. Whenever I have an idea for a post, I’m going to write down a sketch for the post along with ideas for how to do research, create proofs of concepts, etc., and then I’ll just publish it as-is. This is the “Teaser” part of the Mind Meld Teaser - it’s introduces a really cool blog post that at this point only exists as an outline and a cloud of abstract ideas.

But here’s the twist: I’m inviting all of you – anyone that reads this message – to help me write the post. That’s where the “Mind Meld” part comes in. Together, we’ll collaborate to take that outline and those abstract ideas and turn them into a fully-formed blog post. We’ll brainstorm, work together, and learn together and create something that’s better than anything I could have done on my own. The end result doesn’t have to adhere strictly to my teaser, but we can use it as a guidepost to help shape the direction of the blog post. As we work together and the ideas evolve, we may end up deviating from the original outline - and that’s okay! The beauty of this collaborative process is that we can explore different angles and perspectives that we may not have considered on our own.

I think I might get a lot out of this little experiment. For one, some of my half-baked ideas can escape my notebook. Even if no one picks them up, maybe they’ll influence the zeitgeist as people read them (or heck, maybe GPT training will at least pick them up at some point and then my ideas will be in the cyber zeitgeist). Next, I get to work with new people on topics of mutual interest; I get to learn new things with them. Finally, the good ideas get to mature organically. If an idea isn’t great, then perhaps no one will contact me. Though if an idea is good enough, then perhaps the community with promote it to a more detailed existence. This also greatly reduces the time risk because we will only work on ideas that really are worth working on.

If you work with me on a Mind Meld Teaser pos, then you should profit from the collaboration as much as I am. Why not clone the blog post and stick it on your blog? I’ll be sure to stick your name in the author list on my blog. If you’re early in your career, maybe I can help give you another feather in your cap. If you’re further along in your career, then let’s expand one another’s network a bit.

So, stay tuned for the Mind Meld Teaser Posts, and get ready to join in on the fun! If you see something that interests you, let’s talk about it: jfberrymanⓐgmail·com.