Chat is the wrong shape for AI brainstorming: a dev experiments with tree-shaped idea maps
S_B_B_B_K · reddit · 2026-10-19
A developer argues chat is the wrong interface for AI-assisted brainstorming: brainstorming is a tree — pick a branch, go deeper, back up, try another — but chat flattens it into one long scroll, burying good ideas 30 messages up and making 'go deeper on #4' awkward.
His weekend experiment:
- Each answer is a bubble; clicking one grows that branch, with everything on one map.
- Every idea gets a quick score so promising branches are visible at a glance.
- The same mechanism works as an agent tool: via MCP, an agent can request 'ideas for X' and get back a small structured set of scored ideas plus a map link, instead of dumping text into chat.
He's asking whether others brainstorm in chat or switch to whiteboards/mind maps, and whether agents should hand back structured maps.
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