Creators
How DHH writes on X: 152 posts, and what they have in common
DHH (@dhh) has 152 posts in the library with 116.6K likes between them. What they write about, how they open, and the posts that did the most — read from the posts themselves.
DHH (@dhh) has 152 posts in the library. Between them they drew 116,591 likes; the typical one reaches 347, and the biggest reached 11,743. Most of that work is about Revenue. This is what the posts themselves say about how they write — not a profile, a pattern.
What they write about
- Revenue — 34 of 152 posts (22%)
One subject, consistently. That is rarer than it sounds; most accounts in the library spread across three or four, and the ones that do not tend to be the ones people follow for something.
How they open
- 87% of posts open with an observation
- 8% of posts open with a number
- 2% of posts open with a question
Half or more of their posts open the same way — an observation. That is a signature, and it is worth reading the three below with that in mind: the move is the same, the subject changes.
Fable one-shotted a Rust rewrite of the TerminalTextEffects Python library in 11M tokens. Startup time went from 87ms to 2ms and rendering speed is up by 9.6x. Now zero dependencies and a 3mb single exec 🤯 https://t.co/3cTEQAqYdO
So obviously we both furiously signup for the fucking $25/month credit-check bullshit shakedown that is TransUnion. Maybe someone stole my wife’s identity? Even though we’ve verified there was nothing wrong previously. Guess what: HER CREDIT SCORE WAS HIGHER THAN MINE!!!
Cloud marketing convinced a generation of programmers that the scariest thing in the world was to connect their own server to the internet. All so they could be sold and resold the same centralized dependencies at huge markups.
The posts that did the most
- @dhh — “Fable one-shotted a Rust rewrite of the TerminalTextEffects Python library in 11M tokens. Startup time went from 87ms to 2ms and rendering…” — 11,743 likes · open
Why it worked: Opens with a short, self-contained line that is easy to take in at a glance.
- @dhh — “So obviously we both furiously signup for the fucking $25/month credit-check bullshit shakedown that is TransUnion. Maybe someone stole my…” — 4,133 likes · open
Why it worked: Leads with a specific number, which is concrete enough to be worth a second of attention.
- @dhh — “Cloud marketing convinced a generation of programmers that the scariest thing in the world was to connect their own server to the internet.…” — 3,761 likes · open
Why it worked: Ends on a short line that is easy to quote and repeat.
- @dhh — “Five business books that lit a bulb 💡” — 3,733 likes · open
Why it worked: Opens with a short, self-contained line that is easy to take in at a glance.
- @dhh — “Shocking difference between the 7b and 32b versions of DeekSeek R1 for programming. Asked to "build a simple ruby web app", the 7b model fl…” — 3,658 likes · open
Why it worked: Leads with a specific number, which is concrete enough to be worth a second of attention.
What to borrow
Nothing of theirs — not a phrase, not a number, not a fact. What carries over is the shape.
- From the 11,743-like post: Preserve the Hook → Context → Landing structure and the plain observation opening.
- From the 4,133-like post: Preserve the Hook → Landing structure and the leads with a number opening.
- From the 3,761-like post: Preserve the Hook → Landing structure and the plain observation opening.
The structure the analysis reads most often across their best work is Hook → Landing — 3 of the top 5 follow it.
Start here
- Every post of theirs in the library — sortable by likes, replies or date, with the mechanics on each.
- Remix their style — their five strongest posts as sources, your product as the subject. The words will be yours; the moves will be theirs.
- Save the ones that match your taste to a board, and the board's remixes will lean their way.