2 builders who never spoke to each other
Announce it publicly so quitting has a cost
State the commitment in public early, sometimes within the first half hour of buying the domain, and let the watching audience become the enforcement. The mechanism is social rather than motivational: abandoning something strangers are following costs you something, so the announcement raises the price of giving up.
The method
- 01
Announce what you are attempting publicly so that quietly abandoning it carries a cost.
- 02
Buy the domain and announce the project publicly within the first half hour, using the announcement purely as accountability to finish it.
- 03
Commit publicly to a fixed cadence of releasing one new product a month for a year, so the challenge itself gathers people who watch every release.
What it returned
Zue bought a domain and tweeted about his life-timeline idea within thirty minutes of seeing another person's version, then built and shipped it in three days.
Twelve startups planned across twelve consecutive months.
Sources
- @levelsio's blogPieter Levels · levels.io · I'm Launching 12 Startups in 12 Months · 2014-03-01
- Your Life in WeeksCory Zue · coryzue.com · Your Life in Weeks · 2025-02-20
- The Art of Working AloneCory Zue · coryzue.com · Writing Publicly · 2017-04-07
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in social
- Concentrate on one platform until it works11 unconnected · contested
- Gather the audience before there is a product6 unconnected · contested
- Fire the launch into the audience you already have6 unconnected · contested
- Post the numbers, not the commentary5 unconnected · contested
- Republish the winners with a new hook5 unconnected
- Cut one long piece into weeks of social posts5 unconnected