My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Would You Text Me About This Test
Content quality filter asking whether you'd personally share this information with a friend via text message
Decision Rule
Only publish content that passes the 'would I text this to a friend' test
How It Works
Mimics natural human interest and sharing behavior to filter out boring or irrelevant content
Failure Modes
Personal interests may not match audience interests
Test becomes too restrictive and limits content volume
Overthinking the test rather than using intuitive judgment
Example Decision
“Newsletter considering story about obscure blockchain regulation - founder asks 'would I text Ben about this?' Answer is no, so story gets cut despite being 'newsworthy.'”
Related Knowledge
Copywriting skills from fraud operations contain valuable insights for legitimate business
Study unethical examples to extract ethical techniques
Values Must Acknowledge Trade-offs Framework
A principle that company values are only meaningful when they explicitly acknowledge what you're sacrificing or what dow
Big Bets Strategy Framework
A one-page strategy document that lists 6 specific bets for the year plus explicit non-bets to maintain focus
Validate if your newsletter subscribers are actually engaged readers
High reply rate (>10%) to personal outreach email from founder
Create viral dating events that solve app fatigue through in-person meetups
200-500 people attending regular events, partnership with dating apps, profitable event business
Collect and Store Good Phrases/Ideas for Later Use
Systematically collecting effective phrases, lines, and ideas from various sources to use in your own work later