Episode 1: What Is Thought Mining?

This is the first episode of the Thought Mining podcast. Derek Olson and Nathan Anderson introduce the concept of thought mining. They discuss the origin of their awareness of the term, their initial interpretations of what it means, and how it inspired the title of the podcast. Their conversation in this episode is generally informed by the following excerpt of a reflection that Nathan wrote in the middle of the night when the concept of thought mining spontaneously surfaced in his mind after he woke up from a deep sleep. "3/16/23. Thought mining: The extraction of meaningful insights from an array of thoughts. Thought mining may be internal, external, or shared. Internal thought mining is the extraction of meaningful insights from one’s own array of thoughts. Internal thought mining occurs with thoughts inside oneself. External thought mining is the extraction of meaningful insights from an array of thoughts representing one or more individuals outside of oneself. External thought mining occurs with others’ thoughts outside of oneself. Shared thought mining is the extraction of meaningful insights between the thoughts of oneself and at least one other person. Shared thought mining occurs between thoughts that are inside of oneself and thoughts of one or more others that are outside of oneself."