The Kaleidoscope Project: May Roundup

Experimentation Lab Results

Welcome to the Laboratory of Experimentation, where our brave participants in May’s Kaleidoscope challenge have been testing hypotheses, mixing metaphorical compounds and documenting their findings on the theme of “Experimentation.” While our lab saw fewer scientists this month, the quality of research remains impressive. Let’s don our lab coats and safety goggles as we examine these fascinating specimens.

And if you have no idea what I am talking about The Kaleidoscope Project Monthly Challenge is a writing challenge hosted by myself and

Moon Arica

where we set a different prompt each month to see how different people have much different perspectives. You can read the launch post to get some extra context.

It is likely that this post will be too long for your email client, so for best results, view in your browser or in the app.

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There are some people who do experiments in their life and then people who do them on their life.

Tid_Talks

took that to the extreme, although I think it was more coincidence than specifically for this challenge:

As she went on to say:

Experimenting with my life. What say Mark? I am not writing for the theme, this time I AM the theme 😬😂

Time will tell the full results of this grand experiment but I wish TID all the best in her new venture! We’re here for any updates you have TID!

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Moon Arica

walked us through her framework for an experimental life and gave us a blueprint for experimentation:

Is life a series of experiments?

Then Moon conducted an experiment on her own longrunning KISS series to gain valuable feedback for the future:

KISS Friday - 23 May, 2025

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Laura E-I

is a self confessed “Geeky Scientist” and her reflections on the prompt are exactly what I hoped to see from food to creating for the sake of it.

Kaleidoscope Project: Experimentation

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In a wonderful case of serendipity

Tiffany

had already started experimenting well before she knew what this month’s prompt would be, in a post that I found incredibly detailed and informative.

Full Circle Cycle Syncing

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As part of the life reflection department

Virginia Curtis

treated us to not one but six experiments that she has conducted through life and currently, with mostly successful results.

On The Verge

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Aprille Walker

tackled an experiment that I feel very close to, I think about it often, so it is great to hear other’s reflections on the theme of Waking Up and not sleeping through life.

Waking Up

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Arya Voss

failed in her experiment. But I don’t think that’s cause for concern, because of all she learned along the way.

A Beautiful Failure: My Month Without Newsletters

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Karl Tame

considered the layers of our life and asks the question if all we see online should really shape what we think.

The layers of our life

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P.Q. Rubin

wondered if AI could run his Substack channel, telling it “Do whatever you like: you’re the boss.”

The Big Experiment

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Nataliya Falevich

created an experimental series which you can just read, but believe me, to experience the full impact you need to hear the words exactly how they are meant to be heard, you need to listen to Nataliya’s voiceover. There are four parts and the first part is listed below, but you can access them all from this link.

Like a Cat in the Sun

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Then there are my own experiments I’ve done this month which focus on how we spend our time.

Why Your Future Self Hates You, and How to Make Peace

The £3,236 Experiment

The gist being if you don’t plan your time wisely or don’t pay attention to what you actually do, then there is so much scope for getting off track.

Time doesn’t vanish when you don’t manage it, you spent it anyway, you just don’t realise the cost.

I’m now planning my days in advance, either the night before, or the morning of. Blocking off time to do what absolutely needs to be done, and where there are times with nothing planned I don’t feel guilty about having a nap or watching a film.

This is the end of the roundup, but not the end of the post. There are two more experiments of mine at the end, that I haven’t written about previously but conducted this month.

The Experiment Doesn’t Stop Here

Just because May is over, it doesn't mean that you can pack up your lab coat and stop experimenting. Curiosity doesn't depend on the calendar, it's a lifelong condition with no known cure. So if you still have a hypothesis that you're itching to explore, run the test, see what works, what you can break and what you can learn from it.

The Kaleidoscope challenge moves on but life is the ultimate experiment.

My Failed Experiment

I decided that some of my posts were getting way too big. I have a couple of posts that weighed in at around 4,000 words:

Exploring The Labyrinth of Ignorance

I Used to Be White Knuckle, Now I’m Getting White Hair: Where Did The Thrill Go?

and one at almost 5,000!

The Double-Edged Sword: AI, Creativity and That Lingering Question

So I decided that for May, I would slim down, try and say what I wanted to say in under 1,500 words. Why that amount? Because apparently that’s the ideal post length, the Goldilocks zone, where less feels too short and longer means people don’t get to the end. I managed it a few times, but I feel I just have too much to say and not enough skill to say it in less words.

I’ve always been one for saying things the long way and by doing this experiment I’ve learned that trying to stay lean just isn’t me.

My Successful Experiment

Until now, every Note I’ve written has been written with no real strategy in mind. My first viral Note happened entirely by accident. I wrote a post about it called Accidentally Interesting.

Accidentally Interesting

This time, though, I wanted to experiment, could I be Intentionally Interesting?

What if I try to create a viral Note on purpose? What if I put thought into how I could hook readers as they were scrolling, match my emotional tone with how the readers might feel, make it super relatable and see if I can write something that's both authentic and can become popular.

This was the Note:

I chose the first line and put it in bold to stop people scrolling and hopefully they would read the whole thing. A strong, almost outrageous claim that would either resonate or raise an eyebrow.

I also used the word literally which was actually unintentional. As I discussed in the comments afterwards I literally meant actually.

I followed it with stats (because apparently people love numbers) and a bit of gentle comparison so you can consider what your own numbers are and I used my “ambushed by inspiration” line, which I wrote a while back but proved popular.

Then I added how writing has made me feel and what I thought it could do for the entire world if they were to take it up. More big claims that I thought other writers would agree with. And I think lots of people read it and nodded along or at least got curious about it.

After I put it out into the world I expected maybe 20 likes at most. I didn't expect this experiment to work. But somehow it did.

1,300+ likes, 100+ comments, and 77 restacks. Twelve hours of replying to people. Dozens of tangents and side conversations. Nearly 100 new subscribers. A level of increased visibility that I haven’t had since my previous brush with virality. I'm not exactly sure anymore what counts as viral but I think we can agree that if not viral this note was popular and so I count this as a successful experiment.

It was a brilliant but busy couple of days. I made so many connections, met new people and had real conversations about writing. Some replies were from people who said they’d never written online before, or didn't consider themselves writers. Overall, people agreed with and reflected the sentiment.

Explaining all of this here is a little bit of a confession, because in doing my experiment, it felt a little like I’d cheated. Not because anything I said wasn’t true, it absolutely is. But because it felt like I used manipulation tactics, and that I tried to say something that would resonate on purpose.

And that’s what makes me feel like I cheated.

It’s as if by thinking too much about it I somehow “hacked” something sacred. I know that’s not very rational.

Breaking it down, we're all here to write and even those of us who write primarily for our selves still want to know that we're doing it right, and the validation of the community at large plays a large part.

This experiment taught me that it is possible to go viral on purpose. It's not guaranteed, but you can stack the odds.

But it also reminded me that I don't want to get one over on the algorithm, I just want to think out loud, connect with others and see where the conversation goes.

I'm not going to try and go viral again, I'm just going to write what comes to mind, in a hopefully pleasing way and if one of my notes or posts does get popular, at least then I won't feel slightly sleazy about any success. I'd rather be the quiet guy scribbling in the corner who occassionaly has people say "Yeah, me too." Than the guy on stage hacking the algorithm and hoping for applause.