Let’s co-write a blog post together! Me and you! Yes you! (If that could be fun for you.) About what? I don’t know! Working that out is half the fun!
I was reading this post by Malcolm Ocean and Kai Rathmann today:
The thesis of this post is essentially: make things with people. We want to introduce a new-ish framing for how to relate to people, called “project partners”. A project partner is someone that you are doing (or have done) a project with. The project can be large, but doesn’t have to be. The key is that you have the experience of working together towards a specific, external, common goal.
Doing a small project with someone is great for a number of reasons:
You get to know each other’s work style.
You learn more about your own work style.
You deepen emotional rapport and bond with the other person.
You might be more likely to finish a project if you have someone else keeping you accountable.
You end up with a thing that you can point to and say, “we did this!”
Relatedly, it makes a great story if someone asks “so how do you and Person know each other?”
[…]
Collaborating on a project is a great way to connect to another person.
So let’s make something (a blog post to be posted on this blog) together!
This is how I’m currently thinking it could go…
What would we write about?
I don’t know! If you have something specific in mind you can suggest it, but I also love the idea of just jumping on a Zoom and having a chat and seeing what comes up that feels fun to both of us. Just something small and simple :) I love the idea of finding something where we have either overlapping or different (but complimentary) knowledge/interest. In the post that inspired me Kai gives the example of:
Another idea was collaborating on online research where we complemented each other well. We wanted to find out how easy it would be to provide a particular service in the country of my conversation partner. I knew more about the details of the service and compiled a list of general questions, and they knew more about their country and set out to find the answers.
It could also just be a random and silly blog post idea that makes us both giggle at the idea of. It could sit near the boundaries of what even counts as a blog post (Just a list of every movie on Netflix that either of us has started but not finished during lockdown?)
We could also do a non-blog post little project/mission together and then write up a blog post about that. (‘We hacked Blue Ivy’s TikTok’)
Or if we can’t find a shared/complimentary interest or if you want to do something together but don’t want to do writing, I could also just ask you a lot about something you’ve experienced or know about and then write that up!
Um so how will this work practically?
Not sure totally, but at the moment basically I’m thinking:
You contact me and say you’re down
We schedule a Zoom to throw around ideas
We/you/I write up a super simple (e.g. a couple of dot points) stand-in post and schedule a date it will post on. (see Showtime)
Then over the course of a week before the post date we collab (yes ‘we collab’ is vague) to grow it out into a full post.
On the post date whatever we have done gets posted.
We made a thing together yay!
But do I need to be confident I can make something good with you?
No, my excitement is much more for ‘making a thing with someone’ than for ‘making a good thing with someone’.
How many people will you do this with?
I dunno! I’m guessing I’ll probably do one with everyone who offers and doesn’t flake lol, but y’know depends on time, how long my enthusiasm lasts, and the unknowable and unpredictable factors of our complex universe.
I’m pretty sure you don’t actually want me me to respond to this though… You mean like those other people who are good at writing blog posts and stuff… Or those other people who you’re already friends with…
I’m pretty sure you’re wrong. (And if you’re somehow right, well I just brought that on myself, didn’t I?)
OK so how do I do this?