Hooks and skeletons

Launch

Product launch

Problem → product → proof → ask.

1. 1. I got tired of [pain]. So I spent [time] building something that does [job] in [timeframe]. It's live.
2. 2. The ugly workaround I kept seeing: • [step 1] • [step 2] • [step 3] People were paying with hours, not money.
3. 3. What it does, plainly: 1. [feature] 2. [feature] 3. [feature] No account required to try the core loop.

Build in public

Weekly ship log

What you shipped, what broke, what's next.

1. 1. Week [n] of building [project] in public. Shipped: [thing] Broke: [thing] Learned: [thing]
2. 2. The metric I actually watched this week: [metric]. It moved from [x] → [y] because [reason].
3. 3. Mistake I will not repeat: [mistake] Cost: [time/money]. Fix: [one sentence].

Story

Origin story

A scene, a turn, a lesson.

1. 1. Three years ago I [ordinary scene]. I did not know it would become [outcome].
2. 2. The moment it clicked wasn't glamorous. It was [specific Tuesday detail].
3. 3. What I believed then: [old belief]. What I believe now: [new belief].

Teach

Tutorial thread

Promise a result, then walk it.

1. 1. How to [result] in [time] without [common requirement]. A tight thread.
2. 2. You only need: • [tool] • [input] • [constraint]
3. 3. Step 1 — [verb the thing] Most people skip this and wonder why it feels sloppy.

Hot take

Unpopular take

A sharp claim with receipts.

1. 1. Unpopular: [claim]. Not because it's edgy. Because the default advice is lazy.
2. 2. The industry line is: [cliché]. Watch what happens when you actually measure it.
3. 3. I tested this on [n] [things]. The pattern that survived: [pattern].

Cost of the workaround

We were paying a person to copy this between two spreadsheets every Friday. That is not a workflow. That is a product shaped hole.

I was wrong

I was wrong about [topic] for [n] years. Here is the version I wish someone had handed me.

Specific number

I wrote 40 threads in 90 days. 8 of them did numbers. The other 32 taught me the actual craft.

Stop doing X

Stop starting threads with "A thread on…" Nobody saved that sentence. Lead with the bruise.

Before / after

Before: 11 tabs, a Notion graveyard, and a thread I never posted. After: one canvas, a score, copy, ship.

How-to promise

How to write an X thread people finish. No growth-hack. Just structure.

Tiny confession

Most of my "good ideas" die in drafts because the first line is cowardly. So I started scoring the hook before I wrote tweet 2.

Rule of one

One idea. One scene. One ask. If your thread needs a table of contents, it is two threads.

Unpopular craft

Unpopular: scheduling tools will not save a boring first sentence. The algorithm is downstream of the hook.

Counted failure

I deleted 19 openers this morning. The 20th was the thread.