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independence5 unconnected · 2 more authors in those circles
applies to

b2b and consumer, no audience needed

outcome not stated

confidence

high

evidence

19 claims · 15 articles · 4 receipts

window

2016-04-23 → 2026-06-18

5 builders who never spoke to each other

Put every idea through a written screen

Write the questions down once and run each candidate through them, killing anything that fails a single one rather than defending it. The value is in the ruthlessness: a fast filter you actually apply beats any technique for generating more ideas.

The method

  1. 01

    Invest your effort in a fast, ruthless filter for killing ideas rather than in techniques for generating them, and note that every attribute of a good idea inverts into a rejection test.

  2. 02

    Sketch the shape of the business in outline, then attack it with a fixed set of questions while actively trying to destroy it, and discard it the moment it fails any single one.

  3. 03

    Score every idea on your list from 0 to 10 on three things, how sure you are of the customer acquisition plan, how sure you are that people want it, and how sure you are that you can pull it off, then begin with whatever ranks highest.

  4. 04

    Score a candidate idea against three tests: proven demand in the market, effort that multiplies into healthy margins, and a fit with your own skills, background and network.

  5. 05

    Score each new idea as a bet with three questions before starting: what will it cost me, what outcome can I actually foresee, and how likely is that outcome.

What it returned

  • 10

    His threshold for widespread is on the order of 10 million people or 100,000 companies with the problem.

  • The author calls this filter his meat grinder and frames the rest of the book as sharpening it

  • He reduces the dozens of published idea screens to these three ratings and works down the ranked list from the top.

  • Justin's summary of Jason Cohen's criteria.

Sources

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.

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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.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

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