How to make TextEdit open with a blank file by default?
If you don't want to disable syncing documents and data, run

defaults write -g NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile -bool false


and quit and reopen TextEdit to apply the changes.

To restore (thanks to comments run)

defaults delete -g NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile


To set this for TextEdit only (thanks to comment by gklka)

defaults write com.apple.TextEdit NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile -bool false