Creators
How Garry Tan writes on X: 236 posts, and what they have in common
Garry Tan (@garrytan) has 236 posts in the library with 191.7K likes between them. What they write about, how they open, and the posts that did the most — read from the posts themselves.
Rests on:@garrytan,the post,the post,the post,the post,the post
Garry Tan (@garrytan) has 236 posts in the library. Between them they drew 191,671 likes; the typical one reaches 395, and the biggest reached 45,563. Most of that work is about Founder. This is what the posts themselves say about how they write — not a profile, a pattern.
What they write about
- Founder — 92 of 236 posts (39%)
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
- 71% of posts open with an observation
- 16% of posts open with a number
- 6% of posts open with direct address
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.
My best career advice:
Apple has devolved into a late stage holding company
Colleges are buying SAT takers names, marketing to low scorers, all to boost rejections and juice their already low acceptance rates to get higher US News rankings
The posts that did the most
- @garrytan — “My best career advice:” — 45,563 likes · open
Why it worked: Opens with a short, self-contained line that is easy to take in at a glance.
- @garrytan — “Apple has devolved into a late stage holding company” — 4,279 likes · open
Why it worked: Opens with a short, self-contained line that is easy to take in at a glance.
- @garrytan — “Colleges are buying SAT takers names, marketing to low scorers, all to boost rejections and juice their already low acceptance rates to get…” — 3,282 likes · open
Why it worked: Short enough to read in full without expanding, which removes a step before the point lands.
- @garrytan — “Masayoshi Son invented the first electronic dictionary, sold it for $1.7M to Sharp, and used that capital to start SoftBank.” — 2,986 likes · open
Why it worked: Uses concrete numbers instead of vague claims, which makes it credible and quotable.
- @garrytan — “Growing up the child of immigrants, sometimes food insecure, the child of an alcoholic, this was me” — 2,888 likes · open
Why it worked: Uses concrete numbers instead of vague claims, which makes it credible and quotable.
What to borrow
Nothing of theirs — not a phrase, not a number, not a fact. What carries over is the shape.
- From the 45,563-like post: Preserve the Hook → Landing structure and the plain observation opening.
- From the 4,279-like post: Preserve the Hook → Landing structure and the plain observation opening.
- From the 3,282-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.