Patterns
Posts that tell a story: what the top 20 did
247 posts in the library were written to tell a story. The 20 that travelled furthest, how they open, what the analysis says they share, and how to write one.
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A sequence of events with a turn in it. These are the stories from the library that people passed on, and what they have in common structurally. 247 posts in the library were written to tell a story; these are the 20 that did the most.
The 20
- @SeanSafyre — “Found an iPhone on the side of the road... Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to a baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA12…” — 77,076 likes · open
- @elonmusk — “That’s for the DGX Spark 😀” — 63,847 likes · open
- @elonmusk — “Neuralink will start high-volume production of brain-computer interface devices and move to a streamlined, almost entirely automated surgic…” — 55,637 likes · open
- @elonmusk — “The “fixed pie” fallacy is at the heart of much wrong-headed economic thinking.” — 54,911 likes · open
- @matthewschmitz — “Beginning in 2014, prestige industries decided they urgently needed to diversify. They didn’t purge established Boomers. Instead, they did…” — 46,825 likes · open
- @PanasonicDX4500 — “you know I was gonna question the ethics of giving harvey weinstein a profile interview in 2026, but I gotta be honest, 10,000 words of him…” — 27,235 likes · open
- @RnaudBertrand — “I have a website about Traditional Chinese Medicine that I spent literal years building. When I asked questions to Claude about the topic,…” — 27,208 likes · open
- @RonFilipkowski — “James Comer spent every day for 2 years and millions of US taxpayer dollars trying to link Joe Biden to Hunter’s appointment to the Burisma…” — 19,912 likes · open
- @DuckDuckGo — “Google complies with invasive "keyword warrants" that identify anyone who searched for a term. @iblametom reports: https://t.co/3lAnc00skQ” — 18,449 likes · open
- @AnthropicAI — “We partnered with Mozilla to test Claude's ability to find security vulnerabilities in Firefox.” — 14,836 likes · open
- @Dorialexander — “So DeepSeek situation summarized:” — 13,674 likes · open
- @PalmerLuckey — “Thread” — 11,317 likes · open
- @edzitron — “Today's newsletter is the story of how Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's former head of ads - led a coup so that he could run Google Search, and…” — 10,667 likes · open
- @Gizmodo — “CORRECTION: Gizmodo originally stated that drug company Mallinckrodt had jacked up the price of an anti-seizure medication from $40 in 2000…” — 9,992 likes · open
- @WrestleOps — “WWE ‘PLEs’ available in the U.S in 2026 will be held on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service with select events simulcasted on ESPN's line…” — 9,286 likes · open
- @MattBinder — “X promoted a trending story on Thursday via its homepage with the headline:” — 9,060 likes · open
- @GodsBurnt — “Companies in 2020: “Work from home is the future.”” — 8,027 likes · open
- @SawyerMerritt — “By June 30, 2026, Tesla will officially discontinue the Model S and Model X.” — 6,443 likes · open
- @wdavisx3 — “THREAD: 1/? True story, @PeteHegseth was the subject of my first ever research book in 2017.” — 6,434 likes · open
- @Suhail — “1/ Let's talk about fundraising: In 2009, Y Combinator only gave us $15K, half our YC batch died after demo day, 11 firms told us no, 2 fir…” — 6,411 likes · open
What they have in common
14 of the 20 open with an observation, and 4 with a number. The mechanism the analysis names most often is specificity — exact numbers, named tools, precise dates — details that make a claim feel observed rather than asserted — in 5 of them. 13 of the 20 put a figure in the first line. The median post is 272 characters long — a single post, not a thread.
Three, read closely
@SeanSafyre — 77,076 likes
Found an iPhone on the side of the road... Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to a baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA1282 Survived a 16,000 foot drop perfectly in tact!
- Opens with a short, self-contained line that is easy to take in at a glance.
- Ends on a short line that is easy to quote and repeat.
- The opening line stands alone, so it reads completely before the post is expanded.
@elonmusk — 63,847 likes
That’s for the DGX Spark 😀
- Opens with a short, self-contained line that is easy to take in at a glance.
- Uses concrete numbers instead of vague claims, which makes it credible and quotable.
- The opening line stands alone, so it reads completely before the post is expanded.
@elonmusk — 55,637 likes
Neuralink will start high-volume production of brain-computer interface devices and move to a streamlined, almost entirely automated surgical procedure in 2026.
- Short enough to read in full without expanding, which removes a step before the point lands.
- Short sentences keep the pace up, so the reader never has to re-read a line.
Writing one
- Preserve the Hook → Landing structure and the plain observation opening.
- Preserve the Hook → Landing structure and the plain observation opening.
- Preserve the Hook → Landing structure and the plain observation opening.
Remix the top three with your own product as the subject.