Harnessing Collective Cognitive Computing ðŸ§
We all have amazing internal processors: our brains.
Our brains have incredible cognitive abilities that have (so far) been unmatched by artificial intelligence (though GPT 4o seems to have broken a barrier on the interface side of things).
However, there is a problem: almost all of this incredible cognitive processing happens behind the scenes, invisible to the rest of the world.
We have thoughts, ideas, plans, emotions, feelings, memories, and more that fleetingly flit out of brains, potentially forever.
For those of us that journal or take notes/voice memos/videos, we are able to capture these thoughts, emotions, and ideas by putting them into containers: words.
Words encapsulate outputs of the brain’s cognition, forever enabling us to go back and review our past experience. We leverage our scarcest resources (time & attention) to produce a snapshot (note) of our cognitive output (thoughts & ideas).
Even better, we can build on these thoughts and ideas, leveraging our previously invested attention (notes) so we can continue the train of thought without starting from scratch.
But there is a massive problem…
Almost no one sees this cognitive output, sitting in our journals or on our desktops, and no one sees the cognitive workings of our brains.
So much energy is used to brainstorm, brain dump, and finesse these words into snapshots that provide value and clarity to our own lives.
But no one sees it.
I believe we are at a point in the Internet Economy where anyone can leverage their existing notes (or new ones) to build their presence online so they can share the value of their experience with others.
It’s time we stop being afraid to share our thoughts and ideas with the world.
It’s time to build in public ✨
Recalibrating Recap
Welcome to Recalibrating! My name is Callum (@_wanderloots)
Join me each week as I learn to better life in every way possible, reflecting and recalibrating along the way to keep from getting too lost.
Thanks for sharing the journey with me ✨
Last week, I shared some reflections from my time in the Rockies, including unedited photos of the aurora borealis (my first time seeing them!) and some wildlife.
This week, I’m continuing from entry #46, where I talked about the changes to Instagram’s algorithm and how they will (hopefully) have a positive impact for new and small creators. I also discussed Instagram’s failure to implement a cross-platform “post” by way of blockchain.
Today, I want to talk more about the ethos of building in public and why it is so valuable to express thoughts and ideas to the world rather than keep them private 100% of the time.
Also, I am hosting a live podcast tomorrow (May 30) at 3 pm EST on Farhouse. You can use your Farcaster account to connect to Farhouse and sign in. I hope you can make it! If you don’t have a Farcaster account, you can click here to make one. Note it costs $5 for the year to pay for hosting your own storage (the benefit and cost of decentralized social media).
If you’re not sure what Farcaster is, you can read my intro on Farcaster here.
Let me know if you have any questions 🫡
The Bigger Picture (Why you should care)
In modern society, much of our economy is fuelled by knowledge workers. As I’ve talked about before, I view knowledge workers as a subset of creators.
Knowledge workers think for a living, using their time & attention to create cognitive products in the form of emails, analysis, memos, patents, contracts, agreements, marketing materials, copywriting, and much more.
Knowledge workers take external stimuli and information, process it through software/their brains, and create a cognitive output that is considered “valuable” by an employer.
Creators take external stimuli and information, process it through software/their brains, and create a creative output that is considered “valuable” by themselves.
Knowledge workers = creators
The knowledge economy that fuels much of our corporate ecosystem in the world is a subset (or at the least, a related set) of the creator economy.
However, many knowledge workers often do not see it this way. They view creators as creative people, and do not associate themselves with creativity.
“I could never be a creator, I’m not creative enough”
“I could never build a social media following, I don’t have anything people would care about”
“There are already 100,000 people doing what I would want to do, why would anyone listen to me”
I hear these things all the time.
They are false.
As I talk about in Entry #21 – Non-Linear Thinking, society has, for far too long, overvalued logic at the expense of creativity.
We favour knowledge over creativity, even though the two are often interchangeable.
It’s not that you ~can’t~ do these things, it’s that you likely haven’t thought enough about what you could do or how you could do it.
The goal of building in public is (in my opinion) not to try and get 1 million followers, but rather to find a smaller community of people that value you for you and the cognitive outputs you can generate and share online.
If you never share your thoughts/ideas/creations, you cannot find people who resonate with you.
It’s time to stop looking at what others are doing, and start thinking about what you could do.
How I Build In Public
Let’s use my last year as an example of building in public.
Each week for the last ~48 weeks, I have taken time to outline, reflect, write, and publish this newsletter.
This newsletter is also a blog post on my website, which has created an entire interconnected ecosystem of writing where anyone can read my posts. These posts are available to the entire Internet and are not dependent on any algorithms.
I share these articles on social media, with friends & family, and with random people I come across in my travels who seem as though they could benefit from some recalibrating.
At first, these entries took quite a while to write. I spent at least 10+ hours each week in my analysis of Maslow’s Hierarchy, aligning the problems I saw in the world and the knowledge economy with the hierarchy of human needs.
I spent yet another few hours each week generating AI images in Adobe Firefly to assist in the visual element of my storytelling.
The difficult/time-consuming part was not the researching, the idea generation, or the act of writing.
The difficult part was finding my voice.
However, with practice and repetition, each week I got a little closer to finding my voice to share my thoughts, ideas, and images with the world.
Now, I can sit down and hammer out 3000-4000 words in a few hours.
Part of this reason is that my writing flows in my own voice much more easily, but another main reason is that I have a backlog of 47 pieces of writing that I have already written and published.
When I’m writing a new entry, instead of explaining each concept over and over, I can reference previous entries and direct people where to find more information.
I can leverage the attention and time I put into the original entries I published (invested through building in public) and I can continue with my flow of thought much more effortlessly.
I can connect the dots of my thoughts across the last year to continue strengthening the world I’m building with my website, as a public resource.
Repurposing Public Content
Additionally, each time I write an Instagram caption, make a YouTube video, create a Pinterest pin, cast on Farcaster, etc., I have a massive backlog of well-written (imo) words that I can reference to bolster my new writing.
I can take snippets of my past writing and share it anywhere on the Internet without going into depth on the topic. I can highlight very specific aspects of the post that are resonating with me in the moment, providing a link to the rabbit hole if people want to dive deeper.
I can copy and paste the writing and images and share as social media posts, use the writing as a script for YouTube, read the newsletters aloud as podcasts, and so much more.
My point is that, when you build in public, the time, energy, and attention you use to build are never wasted (if you set up your system properly). Instead, time, energy, and attention are invested in your future.
This invested time, energy, and attention can be used as a foundation to build additional information, knowledge, and creations that can be shared much more effortlessly across the Internet.
Public vs Private Building
In contrast, with my private building, I have thousands of notes with my thoughts, ideas, emotions, and plans.
These notes sit on my computer and provide an incubator for the ideas I share in public.
None of these notes are accessible in public. They were built in private.
Building in private means that the notes cannot be shared easily, referenced in social media, connected to my website, etc.
Now, I am not saying that everything should be built in public, as I do think there is a lot of value in incubating your thoughts and ideas to privately formulate how you want to share and what you want to say. I also think that some ideas are suited to be patented in traditional intellectual property systems, and publishing them can void your ability to do so.
Note: if you are concerned about publishing an idea that you believe may be valuable as the basis of a patent, I recommend speaking with a intellectual property lawyer or patent agent (aka message me 🫡 ).
That said, I do think that too much of what we “build” as knowledge workers and creators are kept behind the walls of our private computers and private companies. So much cognitive computing power flows into the void rather than into the collective consciousness of humanity.
If we take a small percentage of these thoughts and ideas and find a way to encapsulate them for public viewing, we can boost the amount of value that is shared online, while bootstrapping our ability to step into the creator economy via our digital identities.
Everything I build in public is tied to my digital identity of Wanderloots, which brings a level of credibility to that digital identity, generating long-term value.
I have a few entries that discuss the concept of digital identity, worldbuilding, and monetization in the creator economy here:
- #31 – Long-Term Value Creation
- #32 – Digital Identity & Intangible Value
- #36 – Building The Social Fabric Of The Creator Economy
For now, let’s continue with the blocks to building in public.
Blocks To Building In Public
I think there are two main reasons people don’t build in public:
- they are afraid to try (fear of judgement by others)
- they don’t know what or how to build (not enough self-awareness/skills and fear of failure)
Fear
Building in public involves expressing your “self” to the world. It means putting your work out there, inviting criticism by others. Many people get overwhelmed and anxious at the thought of sharing their own work on social media because they fear judgement by others.
This fear of what others will think of you is natural. It’s built into our biology as a need to belong, stemming from our tribal days. If someone didn’t fit in with the tribe/community, they didn’t receive food and protection (layers 1 and 2 of maslow’s hierarchy of needs). Here’s a great article that goes into depth on Why You Shouldn’t Care What Others Think by finding your inner Mammoth.
However, this fear is out of date. Humanity has evolved, along with the world. Our “tribes” are no longer limited to the people from our tiny little village or nomadic camp. Instead, we have thriving cities with millions of people and an Internet with billions.
We do not need millions or billions of people in our communities, we merely need enough that our basic needs are satisfied; likely a few hundred or thousand people.
With the connectivity of the Internet, we can customize our communities in a way that is best suited for our individual taste. We can build in an intentional way that caters to the world we want to exist.
The fear that prevents people from sharing online comes from being judged by people that, in my opinion, should not be impacting your confidence in the slightest. Who cares what a lawyer thinks about your art? Who cares what a politician thinks about your creative writing?
Fear arises from potential judgement by the masses, curated by algorithms on social media that, in my experience, are very bad at identifying true community.
Instead of fearing what unknown people will think of your creations, you can curate your cognitive output to cater to specific subsets of people whose opinion you actually value.
Confusion & Fear of Failure
Putting aside fear of judgment by others, there is another fear: that we will build “the wrong thing” or build “the wrong way”.
This fear will vary for each person, but likely stems from a fear of failure. When we try to think of the “best” thing to build, we get overwhelmed by analysis paralysis at the infinite potential of what we could build.
There is a lack of clarity or vision on what the end product looks like, what “success” means in this context.
Infinite options presents us with confusion on how to proceed, so each step in the publishing process becomes a barrier to even trying in the first place.
We don’t know what to build, which means we don’t know how to build it.
In my experience, a large part of this confusion comes from a lack of self-awareness. Remember, 95% of people think they are self-aware, but only 10-15% actually are.
When selecting what to build, people try to cater to what will perform well with the algorithm, letting external circumstances and an inhuman selection engine dictate their cognitive output.
This is not the way.
Starting with a foundation of external validation is a recipe for failure. Building on sand, not stone. Algorithms change, platforms die.
Instead, building must be founded on intrinsic motivation, directed at something you actually want to spend your time on.
When you identify what you actually want to build (your vision), the how-to-build-it roadmap reveals itself much more naturally.
Remember, the idea is not to cater to 1 million people online, but to try and find a few hundred people that resonate with the true expression of yourself.
The building process should begin with self-reflection, not external validation.
Mindfulness & Reflection
In my experience, the best way to begin is not to think about the output at all. Instead, look at where the output is derived: your self.
Instead of letting a fear of what others will think or analysis paralysis stop you in your tracks (looking outwards), start by looking inwards.
Self-reflection is a skill that comes with practice. It is not one that arises naturally. Naturally, we live in a state of fight or flight as we react to the world around us. Living in a survival-based mindset leaves no room for self-reflection.
Taking time to journal and write your thoughts, ideas, and feelings down provides an outlet for the self that lives outside of our survival instincts. Reflecting helps us move beyond the basic needs and into growth needs, the path to self-actualization (best version of yourself).
Mindfulness helps create space for that self-reflection by training our brain to separate thoughts related to survival instinct from thoughts related to self-actualization.
Every moment presents us with two options: be mindless (reactive) or mindful (active). Reacting to the world around us leaves no room for self-betterment. Acting with intention opens the doors to a better future, one beyond the reach of fear.
Practicing mindfulness builds the skill of recognizing negative thoughts (fear, doubt, confusion) and allowing them to pass through our brains without triggering a physiological response (fight or flight).
The more you get used to allowing these thoughts to pass without engaging with them, the more you will be able to reflect on your self and what you want out of life. You can reflect on your vision for the future without being dysregulated or triggered by potential barriers along the way.
Mindfulness helps clear your head so you can listen to what’s already there: your voice.
Find Your Voice
I’ve written extensively on finding your voice in the past, so I’ll reference my previous public builds instead of repeating myself here.
- #12 Connection and True Community
- #13 Self-Awareness and Story
- #14 Finding Your Voice Through Story
- #15 Anti-Flow
- #16 The Environment of Self
Your “voice” is the way in which you naturally express yourself. Natural self-expression.
In my experience, the best way to find your voice is to use it. Start sharing in public. You can share writing, images, notes, screenshots, videos, etc. You can comment your thoughts on others’ posts, contributing to the conversational value of the Internet
I suggest starting small, with something sustainable that feels right. A “minimum viable product” if you will (MVP).
The goal here is not to find your voice immediately, but to break the barriers of not trying in the first place. Once you share once, you’ll see what worked and what didn’t work, and you’ll be able to recalibrate for the next one.
No expectations, minimum energy expended; the goal is to make it as natural as possible for your particular expression style.
Most people fear trying because they don’t know how to start. There is an activation barrier, a mental hurdle to overcome.
Once you press publish once, you’ll see how easy it is, and you’ll be able to put more thought into the next expression without the fear and confusion of not knowing how to get started.
Putting out an MVP helps get the ball rolling, the workflow started, and your voice calibrated.
Follow the CODE
To help you get started with your building in public MVP, I would like to suggest the common note-taking workflow discussed more in depth in the book “Building A Second Brain” by Tiago Forte: CODE.
CODE stands for:
Capture (keep what resonates)
Organize (save for actionability)
Distill (find the essence)
Express (show your work)
As you consume information through sources (books, podcasts, tv shows, conversations) or experience (activities, traveling, exercise, etc.) consider jotting down your thoughts, ideas, and feelings.
If you write with the mindset of keeping what resonates, capturing only valuable information that has an impact on you, the act of note-taking becomes less tedious and more intentional. More impactful.
At a later date, you can go through these notes and organize the information in a way that invites actionability. You can connect the dots between thoughts to make action plans for practically using the notes in life.
As you organize your thinking, you’ll start to identify the key elements, the essence, of the notes you’ve been taking. Noting the core of your ideas in an easy to read, easy to access location makes it a breeze to review your past thoughts and ideas.
Finally, the most important element, express the distilled essence of your core ideas and thoughts. Remember, if you don’t share your thoughts and ideas, the value remains trapped in your brain or on your phone/computer.
Start thinking of note-taking not just as a way to jot down information, but as a way to build.
When I refer to note-taking, this could be in any format: videos to yourself, writing in a notebook, journalling on your computer, recording a voice note, texting yourself, etc.
The goal is that you are building a personal knowledge management system (PKM) that: 1) helps you find your voice and 2) helps you share that voice with others.
Future-Proofing & Looking Ahead
The world of knowledge work is increasingly moving to one of individual creation. The creator economy is picking up more than ever, with expectations of being worth trillions in the next few years.
The Internet enables us to build brands and digital identities at a scale and customization that we’ve never seen in the entire history of humanity.
You may not know exactly what it is you want to build or how you want to build it, but that will always be the case if you never get started.
Journaling and writing notes on your thoughts and ideas allows you to create digital assets (intellectual property) that you can leverage into building your vision in the future.
Expressing the core of your thoughts, ideas, and creativity in public helps build an audience of people who are primed to listen to you as you continue building in the future.
Additionally, all of this building can be used to bootstrap custom AI training in the future.
I have literally 200,000 public words and hundreds of thousands of private words I can use to train an AI to help me solve my problems in the future. The custom AI system will understand my personal style far better than someone who has written 0 words to feed it.
In terms of AI scraping your public information and stealing your copyrighted creativity (a large issue right now), there are ways to put tiers of content behind paywalls, either traditional or token-gated with crypto. That’s an issue I’ll get into more in another entry, but one that is moot if you have nothing built in the first place.
For now, I want you to start thinking about what it would be like to build a world for yourself that operates how you would like it to online. This world can be monetized or not; the true value lies in using it as an outlet to find your voice as you build in public and find your true community.
By building in public, we can harness the collective cognitive computing we are each capable of and put that massive processing power towards building a better world, together ✨
Next week
As I approach the 1 year mark of Recalibrating, I am reflecting on how I would like to wrap up this 12th month of writing. I have lots of thoughts and ideas on how to build more in public and share more value with people.
I’ll be chatting about these concepts in my first Farhouse space Thursday, May 30 at 3 pm EST. A Farhouse space is like a live podcast, where you can listen and speak, signed in with your Farcaster account. I’m calling it “Cal’s Campfire” and will be discussing the value of micro-networks 🔥 ✨
Stay tuned ✨
P.S. I have an announcement to make next week that I’m incredibly excited about 👀
I’ve been building a project that is just about ready for the public, one that I’ve been planning since I quit my job almost 1 year ago. Flowcast ties together all of the topics I’ve been discussing in this newsletter 🌊 🧠🧠✨
Book of the week: Building A Second Brain
