Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
Full method →
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q That's, I mean, can you look at any serious inflection points? I mean, did someone mention you? Did you pay for ads somewhere?
A Yeah, that's been, you know, mentions have been the biggest thing. The, the first big inflection point, uh, came in June. I was working with a buddy kind of helping me on the growth side of it. Uh, and he was like, what if we just put up a landing page on product hunt and send people there? And so I'd already had kind of like 1500 people subscribed to the newsletter. And so I sent out an email kind of describing why I was launching a landing page and, and asked people to kind of go check it out on Product Hunt. Got to number two, and I think in a couple of days that drove 2000 new subscribers. And from there, you know, it's really, I haven't, I think I probably tested like a hundred dollars worth of Facebook ads.
AI assessment note: “The, the first big inflection point, uh, came in June.”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q You know, those shares, sometimes if you start to write amazing content, they happen naturally, but a lot of this is sort of like social game theory. If you sort of mention certain people the right way, but it's still analysis and it's still valuable, they're more likely to share it. I mean, do you think about that strategically in your writing?
A It's interesting. That is, that's evolved in a pretty big way in the beginning. Like, absolutely. Cause in the beginning of the newsletter was like, you know, five links. And I would say, you know, I've, I've mentioned this person in the link and this person would, maybe I get a like from one of those people. I've stopped doing that quite as much. I think sometimes organically it happens. Like I wrote about Stripe and then everybody at Stripe reads the piece where you write about, you know, X, Y, Z company that's big enough that it can have an impact. But small enough that they're not being written about every day. Like, you know, people within Facebook weren't sharing my Facebook post, most likely, uh, nearly as much as somebody at a Stripe or a Shopify or something else would, would share if I wrote about, uh, their company.
AI assessment note: “in the beginning. Like, absolutely... I've stopped doing that quite as much.”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q Wow. I mean, that's super compelling. I mean, so, so I've got the, I've got the post open. I mean, you got a significant amount of upvotes on the post, um, and you were number two on the day, June, 11th, 20, 2738 upvotes. That's great. So, and so did, did this growth guy put together all these graphics you used for the product hunt preview?
A Yeah, we kind of did that together. Just, you know, uh, really threw the thing together in less than a week. Talked to a couple of people who had done Product Hunt things before and decided to go for it. And we really, we were like, if we get a hundred upvotes, maybe this will get some exposure. You know, I had a list of like a hundred different things I wanted to try. Product Hunt was one of the things on that list. And I think it was good because we had, you know, I'd spent the past year writing this newsletter and building up the community. So by the time I hit go on Product Hunt, People were willing to like, but then also comment, I think really helps the algorithm there. Uh, and so between the two of those things, it just kind of rocketed to the top and then it got, I think top five for the week. So then it goes out in their email again. So it just was just like, you know, more than doubled the number of subscribers in a week. And kind of from there, you know, it's just hit escape velocity where at some point, sorry, you had 15 pre product hunt.
AI assessment note: “Yeah, we kind of did that together. Just, you know, uh, really threw”
Partly produced feed
D 2 · C 4 · P 3 · Cm 3 3.00
Q Wait, how much would a company pay you to analyze their own business, and have you not, like, make it a mushy, gushy article, like, you actually be critical?
A Yeah, I mean, my style is generally not super critical, so I think that works. Actually, like, I, again, would only write about companies that I'm optimistic about, and the way that my brain works, I'm terrible at seeing the downsides, and I can see the, like, way bigger vision than even maybe the company has easily, and so, like, that's kind of my writing style anyway, so people aren't like, wow, that's weird, Pac. He's normally very bearish, and then he gets paid, and he's super positive about a company. My filter is, you know, if I'm really optimistic about a company anyway, like, I wrote about a company called Main Street, which just gives companies free money by finding grants the government owes them. Like, I'm super excited about that, because one, it's an amazing thing for companies, but then two, I think The stuff that they're doing is actually like building a really interesting company or another one called pipe. Like these are companies that I just feel psyched that I can even, you know, get a conversation in with the founder and like really dig in and learn the business. And so the fact that, you know, it's a sponsored thing, it really feels like a bit of a win-win.
AI assessment note: “my style is generally not super critical, so I think that works.”
