"Going Viral"

A few months ago some friends and I noticed a trend going viral on twitter. I’ll explain it in a bit, but before we talk about that this week’s newsletter is going to be a slight deviation from our regular topics.

Bitcoin is screaming. As a scare digital asset, bitcoin is a lot closer to domains than many realize. I personally didn’t make the connection (ironically it didn’t click from the domain name side) until this year. Do you see what I see?

My (easy) prediction; 2025 to a lesser extent and 2026 especially will be big years for domain investors.

Why?

A lot of people are going to become even more wealthy in the next 24 months, and a good chunk of that money will trickle into other digital assets after. That includes domains.

Okay enough of that - let’s get back to the matter at hand.

Can you predictably “go viral”?

Turns out the answer is likely ‘yes’.

Attention is the most valuable economic resource today, and there are legions of folks dedicating thousands of hours to figuring out what gets people’s attention. They get it right a lot of the time through intense experimentation and rapid iteration.

A few months ago, we noticed a particular trend on twitter - posts that were getting hundreds of thousands or millions of views that all followed the same format. What does it look like?

This:

Look at that - 25 MILLION views. Heck, even with the community note which came later, this post did insane.

This format is so powerful because it leverages “open loops” and the curiosity of the reader to suck people in . An open loop is more or less an introduction to a story and then a change of direction before the story resolves, and the best kind of open loops I’ve encountered are stories that end in a payoff for the person hearing it.

Using these loops, you can tell a narrative around a subject from the point of view of an “acknowledged” (or “secret”) master of that subject, and inject all sorts of additional content. It feels like a system hack.

Once we noticed it, we couldn’t help but see it cropping up everywhere. I imagine there are other versions of this floating around other networks too.

Yesterday I wanted to try it out. This is far and away my best-performing tweet in quite a while, if not ever. Notice the similarities? (I’m wordier, duh!)

Now it’s not breaking 25 million views, but for my account size, it’s a huge increase over my normal visibility. Why did it happen? Because it follows the same principles (even if not as expertly).

• An open loop: Tease the audience with a premise, but leave the resolution until later.

• Curiosity hook: Draw people in by making them need to know the rest of the story.

• Narrative payoff: Ensure the reader feels rewarded for sticking with the post.

This framework is endlessly versatile. You can apply it to almost any topic, whether it’s storytelling, educational content, or even marketing. It works because it plays directly into human psychology—we need to resolve uncertainty.

Here’s the wild part: the best-performing posts don’t just leverage open loops; they compound them. Just when you think the story is about to wrap up, the loop expands or twists, pulling you even deeper.

Why this matters for creators (and domain investors)

The internet rewards attention. Whether you’re selling domains, building a brand, or growing an audience, understanding what captures interest is half the battle. Viral formats like this are tools to engage people at scale, and the better you become at using them, the greater your leverage.

For domain investors, this has a direct application. Every domain you own tells a story or solves a problem. If you can frame that story with open loops and a curiosity hook, your domains become infinitely more compelling to potential buyers. You're no longer just selling a name; you’re selling possibility.

So, next time you’re thinking about how to market a domain, a product, or even an idea, ask yourself:

• Can I use an open loop to draw people in?

• Am I tapping into their curiosity?

• Is there a satisfying payoff at the end?

I’ll leave you with this challenge: try this framework on your next tweet, blog post, or sales pitch. Study what works, iterate, and watch the results. You might be surprised by how quickly attention compounds.