📦 deps(thirdparty): update snapshots

2026-07-07 08:45:58 +00:00
parent 3b9ece8c79
commit 7a1900c015
238 changed files with 15673 additions and 447 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,159 @@
+---
+name: linkedin-post-writer
+description: "Draft LinkedIn posts from 16 tested hook formulas mapped to engagement goals (comments, reposts, likes, saves), with 2026 algorithm formatting rules and an AI-tell scrub pass before publishing."
+category: marketing
+risk: none
+source: community
+source_repo: sergebulaev/linkedin-skills
+source_type: community
+date_added: "2026-07-06"
+author: sergebulaev
+tags: [linkedin, copywriting, hooks, social-media, personal-brand, content-marketing]
+tools: [claude, codex, cursor, gemini]
+license: "MIT"
+license_source: "https://github.com/sergebulaev/linkedin-skills/blob/main/LICENSE"
+---
+
+# LinkedIn Post Writer
+
+## Overview
+
+Drafts long-form LinkedIn posts using 16 hook formulas that were reverse-engineered from posts that outperformed their authors' baselines in 2025-2026, each with a reference engagement number. Instead of asking "what should I write", the workflow asks "what should this post earn" (comments, reposts, likes, or saves), shortlists 2-3 matching formulas, fills the chosen skeleton with the user's voice, then scrubs the draft for AI tells before it ships.
+
+This is the flagship skill from [sergebulaev/linkedin-skills](https://github.com/sergebulaev/linkedin-skills), a 10-skill LinkedIn bundle (writer, humanizer, pre-publish audit, comment drafter, reply handler, hook extractor, content planner, profile optimizer, engager analytics, thread monitor) installable as a Claude Code or Codex plugin. This standalone version covers the drafting workflow; scheduling and publishing automation live in the full bundle.
+
+## When to Use This Skill
+
+- Use when the user says "write me a LinkedIn post about X"
+- Use when the user has a topic and a rough angle but needs a hook and structure
+- Use when the user wants to pick from proven post formats instead of improvising
+- Use when a draft exists but the hook is weak and needs a formula-based rebuild
+- Not for replying to comments or optimizing profiles; this skill only drafts posts
+
+## How It Works
+
+### Step 1: Gather inputs
+
+Collect: topic, angle, target audience (founders, operators, marketers), desired length (short 300-500, medium 900-1,300, or long 1,500-1,900 characters), and any raw material the user already has (numbers, anecdotes, names).
+
+### Step 2: Pick the formula by engagement goal first
+
+Ask (or infer) what the post should earn, then shortlist:
+
+| Goal | Earned by | Formulas |
+|---|---|---|
+| Comments | questions, contrarian takes, vulnerability | F4 Time-Anchor Confession, F10 Contrarian + Receipts, F12 Permission Slip, F9 Curiosity-Gap |
+| Reposts | quotable maxims, tributes, "X isn't Y" distinctions | F14 Named Gratitude, F2 R.I.P. Obituary, F8 Paid-vs-Free Reversal |
+| Likes | emotional stories, celebrations, status-strip | F11 Emotional Cold-Open, F13 Bait-and-Switch Reversal, F16 Status-Strip Humility |
+| Saves | simplifications, exact how-to, frameworks | F15 Explain-to-Kids, F7 Odd-Precision Money Ledger, F8 Paid-vs-Free Reversal |
+
+The full set of 16, with reference engagement:
+
+| Code | Formula | Reference | Best for |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| F1 | Platform Risk Anaphora | 4,240 eng | Category and platform-risk arguments |
+| F2 | R.I.P. Obituary | 3,822 eng | Era-ending claims, industry pivots |
+| F3 | Year-over-Year Pivot | 494 eng, 3.74x baseline | Identity shifts, founder reflection |
+| F4 | Time-Anchor Confession | 1,519+ eng | Vulnerability, voice reset |
+| F5 | Self-Proving Meta | 1,082 eng, 435 comments | Commitments and tests in public |
+| F6 | Comment-Gate Lead Magnet | 717-3,008 eng | List building (max once a month) |
+| F7 | Odd-Precision Money Ledger | 1,755 eng, 9.4x baseline | Build logs, cost breakdowns |
+| F8 | Paid-vs-Free Reversal | 550 eng, 19.64x baseline | Framework giveaways |
+| F9 | Curiosity-Gap Teaser | 306 eng, 4.25x baseline | Surprise and behind-the-scenes stories |
+| F10 | Contrarian + Historical Receipts | 3,083 eng | Sacred-cow takes backed by history |
+| F11 | Emotional Cold-Open | high raw reach | Real stories with emotional stakes |
+| F12 | Permission Slip | comment-heavy | Encouragement to a discouraged audience |
+| F13 | Bait-and-Switch Reversal | high raw reach | Bad-news framing that turns into an upgrade |
+| F14 | Named Gratitude / Tribute | repost-heavy | Thanking mentors, teams, departing colleagues |
+| F15 | Explain-to-Kids | save-heavy | Demystifying jargon into a reference post |
+| F16 | Status-Strip Humility | like-heavy | Senior voices trading prestige for warmth |
+
+Important caveat: F1-F10 references are engagement counts or format multipliers against the author's own baseline; F11-F16 references are raw corpus reach, often inflated by a famous author or a reshare. The two groups measure different things, so never rank formulas across groups by number.
+
+The full skeletons for all 16 formulas are bundled with this skill in [references/hook-formulas.md](references/hook-formulas.md), along with per-formula warnings and the "Never do" list.
+
+### Step 3: Draft the post
+
+Read the chosen formula's skeleton from the bundled [references/hook-formulas.md](references/hook-formulas.md) and fill it with the user's voice and material, respecting the 2026 formatting rules:
+
+- Hook lands in the first 210 characters (before the "... see more" fold)
+- 900-1,300 characters is the sweet spot for text posts
+- Double line-breaks between ideas, never walls of text
+- 0-2 hashtags, placed at the end
+- No external links in the body (put links in the first comment)
+- Prefer "How I" over "How to": first-person experience hooks outperform generic instruction 2-3x
+- Put one specific number in the first sentence ($873.47 beats $900; 40,000 beats "a lot")
+
+### Step 4: Scrub AI tells
+
+Before showing the draft: strip em dashes, AI vocabulary ("game-changer", "deep dive", "delve"), rule-of-three lists without receipts, and generic openers like "In today's fast-paced world". Add human fingerprints: at least one specific number, one named entity, and one first-person concrete detail per 100 words. Vary sentence length aggressively (mix 3-word and 25-word sentences).
+
+### Step 5: Present the result
+
+Show the user: formula used, full draft, character count, and a suggested posting window (Tuesday to Thursday, 7:30-9:00 AM local time performs best for B2B audiences).
+
+## Examples
+
+### Example 1: Founder build-log (F7 Odd-Precision Money Ledger)
+
+```text
+User:  write a post about what my bootstrapped SaaS actually costs to run
+Agent: Goal check: this reads like a saves play (people screenshot cost
+       breakdowns). Best fit is F7 Odd-Precision Money Ledger (9.4x baseline).
+       Draft hook:
+
+       "My SaaS costs $412.83 a month to run. Here is every line item."
+
+       Then the ledger: hosting $94.20, email $35.00, monitoring $18.63...
+       exact numbers only, totals that actually add up, one lesson at the end.
+```
+
+### Example 2: Goal-first selection
+
+```text
+User:  I want a post that gets real comments, topic: why I stopped doing demos
+Agent: Comment-earners are F4 Confession, F10 Contrarian, F12 Permission Slip.
+       For "I stopped doing X" the strongest is F10 Contrarian + Receipts:
+       open with the unpopular claim, back it with 2 historical parallels,
+       close with a question that forces side-picking. Reference: 3,083 eng.
+```
+
+## Best Practices
+
+- ✅ Pick the formula by engagement goal first, topic second
+- ✅ Lead with a real failure or a specific number in the first 3 lines
+- ✅ Include one moment of genuine vulnerability or concrete stakes; pure insight posts underperform in 2026
+- ❌ Don't blend two hook formulas in one post; it dilutes both
+- ❌ Don't use F5 Self-Proving Meta unless the user will actually keep the promise
+- ❌ Don't pair F7 Money Ledger with rounded or invented numbers; readers notice
+- ❌ Don't open with an all-caps line ("THIS CHANGED EVERYTHING")
+- ❌ Don't frame LinkedIn as inferior inside a LinkedIn post
+
+## Limitations
+
+- Reference engagement numbers describe the 2025-2026 corpus the formulas were extracted from; they are priors, not guarantees, and LinkedIn's ranking changes over time.
+- The skill drafts text posts; it does not generate images, carousels, or video scripts.
+- This standalone version does not schedule or publish. Scheduling, comment drafting, reply handling, and engagement analytics require the full bundle from the source repo.
+- Voice quality depends on the raw material the user provides; a formula cannot invent authentic anecdotes, and the skill should ask for real details rather than fabricate them.
+
+## Common Pitfalls
+
+- **Problem:** The draft sounds like every other AI-written LinkedIn post.
+  **Solution:** Run Step 4 ruthlessly. Cut em dashes, cut "game-changer" vocabulary, and force one concrete first-person detail per 100 words.
+- **Problem:** The hook is buried in paragraph two.
+  **Solution:** The first 210 characters must carry the hook; everything before the fold decides the expand rate.
+- **Problem:** Comparing F11's raw reach to F8's 19.64x multiplier and picking F11 "because the number is bigger".
+  **Solution:** The columns measure different things. Match formula to goal and topic, not to the largest number.
+- **Problem:** Post gets reach but zero comments.
+  **Solution:** The formula was picked for the wrong goal. Comment-earners end with a question or a side-picking claim, not a summary.
+
+## Related Skills
+
+- `@linkedin-content-generator` - broader LinkedIn content suite (carousels, newsletters, calendars)
+- `@linkedin-profile-optimizer` - profile and authority optimization rather than post drafting
+- `@social-post-writer-seo` - multi-platform social copy when LinkedIn is not the only target
+
+## Additional Resources
+
+- [Source repo with all 16 formula skeletons and worked examples](https://github.com/sergebulaev/linkedin-skills)
+- [Full 10-skill bundle install (Claude Code / Codex plugin)](https://github.com/sergebulaev/linkedin-skills#install)
@@ -0,0 +1,482 @@
+<!-- Vendored from https://github.com/sergebulaev/linkedin-skills/blob/main/references/hook-formulas.md (MIT).
+     Internal cross-references to the upstream curator's private draft notebook were removed;
+     the skeletons and reference numbers below are complete and sufficient to apply each formula. -->
+
+# 16 LinkedIn Hook Formulas - 2026 Edition
+
+Each formula has a skeleton, why it works, and a reference engagement number from the original post that defined it.
+
+F1-F10 are the original long-form thought-leadership set. F11-F16 were validated in 2026 against a large corpus of above-average performers across 10 verticals; they skew shorter and more emotional, and each is tagged with its primary engagement goal (comments / reposts / likes / saves). Pick by goal first (see "Engagement-goal split" below), then by topic.
+
+**Reading the reference numbers:** F1-F10 cite engagement with a baseline multiplier (a real format effect, e.g. "19.64x baseline"). F11-F16 cite absolute reach from the 2026 corpus, which can be inflated by reshares or a famous author. Treat F11-F16 numbers as a reach ceiling, not a like-for-like comparison against F1-F10. Where the reach was source-driven rather than format-driven, the formula says so.
+
+## Contents
+
+- F1 - Platform Risk Anaphora
+- F2 - R.I.P. Category Obituary
+- F3 - Year-over-Year Pivot
+- F4 - Time-Anchor Confession
+- F5 - Self-Proving Meta
+- F6 - Comment-Gate Lead Magnet
+- F7 - Odd-Precision Money Ledger
+- F8 - Paid-vs-Free Reversal
+- F9 - Curiosity-Gap Teaser
+- F10 - Contrarian + Historical Receipts
+- F11 - Emotional Cold-Open
+- F12 - Permission Slip
+- F13 - Bait-and-Switch Reversal
+- F14 - Named Gratitude / Tribute
+- F15 - Explain-to-Kids Simplification
+- F16 - Status-Strip Humility
+- Engagement-goal split
+- Choosing which formula to use
+- Hook micro-rules
+- Never do
+
+---
+
+## F1 - Platform Risk Anaphora
+
+**Reference:** 4,240 eng.
+
+```
+{Platform1} can {restrict|shadowban|throttle} you {timing}.
+{Platform2} can {bad thing} for {reason}.
+
+[4-5 more anaphoric lines, escalating specificity]
+
+You don't own {audience}. You don't own {feed}. You're renting {attention}.
+
+[Concrete horror anecdote with real number: "I watched a friend lose 180k followers in an afternoon"]
+
+Here's what most people miss: [reframe: what the real asset is].
+
+So I changed how I work:
+- [tactic 1]
+- [tactic 2]
+- [tactic 3]
+
+[Metaphor close: "castles on rented land vs roads"]
+[Product mention as natural conclusion, one sentence, no pitch verbs]
+[Personal-audit question]
+```
+
+**Why:** Loss aversion stacked 5x. Identity threat. Solution list earns the close.
+
+---
+
+## F2 - R.I.P. Category Obituary
+
+**Reference:** 3,822 eng.
+
+```
+R.I.P. {category}.
+
+Cause of death: {specific mechanism + numbers}.
+
+[Concrete evidence, 2-3 paragraphs with dates and stats]
+
+I defended {old thing} publicly through most of 2025.
+
+It worked. Until [pivotal event + date].
+
+Here's what actually changed under the hood:
+
+1. [Change 1 with stat]
+2. [Change 2 with stat]
+...
+6. [Change 6 with stat]
+
+The winners in 2026 aren't {old-winner-type}. They're {new-winner-type}.
+
+[One-line philosophical close]
+```
+
+**Why:** Status-threat + relief combo. Reframes "I'm behind" as "the game changed." Removes shame, invites curiosity.
+
+---
+
+## F3 - Year-over-Year Pivot
+
+**Reference:** 494 eng (3.74x baseline).
+
+```
+In {last year}, I {humble benchmark}.
+
+In {this year}, I'm {transformational goal}.
+
+Here's what actually changed.
+
+[Vulnerable truth + specific numbers (12 -> 1,000 posts)]
+[The identity reframe: "the shift wasn't tools, it was identity"]
+[3-beat imperative close]
+
+[Mirror question: "What's your {last}->{this} pivot? One line below."]
+```
+
+**Why:** Two-line hook carries 80% of the weight. Mirror CTA compounds engagement algorithmically.
+
+---
+
+## F4 - Time-Anchor Confession
+
+**Reference:** 1,519+ eng.
+
+```
+{N} {days|months|years} ago, I stopped {behavior}.
+
+Here's what happened.
+
+[2-year backstory of why the old behavior worked: concrete numbers]
+
+[The quiet cost, what it did to you internally]
+
+So in {month} I stopped. [New behavior, 2-3 lines]
+
+[Metric dropped by N%. Expected worse.]
+
+What surprised me: [counterintuitive upside, specific wins]
+
+[One-line reframe: "X attracts Y. Z attracts the right Y."]
+
+[Mirror question: "What's something you stopped doing that quietly made your work better?"]
+```
+
+**Why:** Confession earns the room. Specific numbers kill the "vibes" energy. Close turns every commenter into a mini-confession.
+
+---
+
+## F5 - Self-Proving Meta
+
+**Reference:** 1,082 eng / 435 comments.
+
+```
+Most LinkedIn posts die in the first 30 minutes.
+
+Not because {common reason}. Because {real reason}.
+
+[Reveal the metric: "reply latency in first 60 min = 3.4x reach"]
+
+So here's the test.
+
+For the next 24 hours, I will {specific commitment}.
+
+You do two things:
+1. [Low-bar action]
+2. [Verification action]
+
+If the thesis is right, {outcome}.
+If it's wrong, I owe you a post admitting it.
+```
+
+**Why:** Claim is validated by reader action. Every comment is evidence. Public accountability hook.
+
+---
+
+## F6 - Comment-Gate Lead Magnet
+
+**Reference:** 717-3,008 eng.
+
+```
+[Authority number: "We've helped creators publish 47,000+ posts in 14 months"]
+
+[Pattern observation the authority earned]
+
+So I turned that workflow into {N named items}. [Drop them into X, type one command, get the output.]
+
+What's inside:
+- [Item 1]
+- [Item 2]
+...
+- [Item 12]
+
+Free. No email wall. [Light scarcity: "48 hours only, I'll DM the link personally"]
+
+Comment "{keyword}" below + connect with me and I'll send the bundle.
+```
+
+**Why:** Capped reach but huge DM conversion. Named bundle + real authority = 300-800 comments if the bundle is genuine.
+
+**Warning:** This is engagement bait. Ship only when the weekly goal is list-building, not thought leadership. LinkedIn suppresses pure "comment X" posts.
+
+---
+
+## F7 - Odd-Precision Money Ledger
+
+**Reference:** 1,755 eng (9.4x baseline).
+
+```
+{Odd, specific dollar number: "$873.47"}
+
+[1-line context of what this number covers]
+
+Here is every line item, from the ledger, nothing rounded:
+
+- {tool 1}: $X.YZ
+- {tool 2}: $X.YZ
+...
+
+[What the total replaces: "$14,200 team cost"]
+
+[The thing that surprised you: what broke, what worked]
+
+[Identity reframe close: "Tradesmen flip houses, SEOs flip blogs, AI founders flip {X}"]
+```
+
+**Why:** Non-rounded numbers signal real accounting. Ledger is screenshot-bait. Dwell time stays high.
+
+---
+
+## F8 - Paid-vs-Free Reversal
+
+**Reference:** 550 eng (19.64x baseline, highest multiplier in the set).
+
+```
+I charge {audience} $X for {service}.
+
+Screw it. Today it's free.
+
+Below is the exact {N-step} teardown I run before I'll take a client. It's called the {NAMED-FRAMEWORK}.
+
+[Block an hour, open X in one tab, Y in another, grade yourself honestly.]
+
+1. {STEP-1-NAME}: [actionable instruction with specific ratio or example]
+2. {STEP-2-NAME}: [actionable instruction]
+...
+7. {STEP-7-NAME}: [actionable instruction]
+
+That's the {framework}. Run it today. Most {audience} find 3 fixes in the first 20 minutes.
+
+[Soft scarcity close: "Want me to run {framework} on your profile personally? Connect + send me yours, I'll pick 5 this week."]
+```
+
+**Why:** Reversal hook (price to free) creates pattern interrupt. Named framework signals proprietary thinking. Checklist drives saves (5x likes under 360Brew).
+
+---
+
+## F9 - Curiosity-Gap Teaser
+
+**Reference:** 306 eng (4.25x baseline).
+
+```
+Yesterday, our {system} did something.
+
+Something we didn't program it to do.
+
+[One sensory anchor: "I was watching the logs from my kitchen, half-reading, half-making coffee."]
+
+[Specific reveal, not a platitude: the concrete thing that happened]
+
+[Reframe: what it means for the category, one paragraph]
+
+[Sensory detail: "held a cold cup of coffee for about ten minutes"]
+
+[Philosophical close naming an unnamed feeling, ending with a question]
+```
+
+**Why:** Line 1 is incomplete + line 2 deepens the gap = scroll-locked brain. Sensory anchor kills the AI-slop pattern detector.
+
+---
+
+## F10 - Contrarian + Historical Receipts
+
+**Reference:** 3,083 eng.
+
+```
+{Sacred cow} has been dying since {year}.
+
+{Month Year}: {event}. "{Death prediction.}"
+{Month Year}: {event}. "{Death prediction.}"
+[6-9 total dated entries, each 1-2 lines]
+
+Every quarter for N years. Every cycle: the same obituary. The same LinkedIn carousel.
+
+Here's the counterpunch.
+
+[Hard stat with source: "$391B -> $1.81T, 35.9% CAGR"]
+[Second stat: "the shippers grew 3-10x in the same window"]
+
+What actually died wasn't {X}. It was {specific subset}. [2-3 lines of who.]
+
+What's thriving: {opposite subset with specifics}.
+
+[Binary identity close:]
+If you're still {losing behavior}, you already lost.
+If you're {winning behavior}, you already won.
+
+[Provocative question: "What's the most embarrassing X-killed-Y prediction you remember?"]
+```
+
+**Why:** Receipt list is a dwell-time machine. Binary identity close forces commenters to pick a side publicly.
+
+---
+
+## F11 - Emotional Cold-Open
+
+**Reference:** highest single post in the 2026 corpus (256k eng), but that reach came from a generic emotional reshare, not the format. Treat it as a ceiling, not a promise. Primary goal: **likes**.
+
+```
+{One short line dropped into the emotional peak of a real story: the moment of breaking, loss, or impossible odds. No setup.}
+
+{Subject} had almost {given up / lost everything} after {the struggle}.
+
+[Mid-scene narrative: 3-6 short lines, present-tense, sensory. The reader is already inside the moment.]
+
+[The turn: what changed, who showed up, what it cost.]
+
+[One-line meaning, not a moral. Let the story carry it.]
+```
+
+**Why:** Starting at the emotional peak (in medias res) skips the warm-up the scroll punishes. Raw feeling out-travels expertise in every vertical.
+
+**Warning:** Do NOT write the first line in ALL CAPS even though many source posts did; all-caps openers read as AI/cringe. Carry the intensity with word choice, not caps. Only use a true story; half the top emotional posts in the corpus were generic reshares, and readers punish manufactured stakes.
+
+---
+
+## F12 - Permission Slip
+
+**Reference:** 29k eng, comment-heavy. Primary goal: **comments**.
+
+```
+I don't know who needs to hear this today, but {reassuring truth aimed at one anonymous reader}.
+
+[2-4 lines that make the reassurance specific and earned, not a platitude.]
+
+[A small, concrete permission: "you're allowed to {X}".]
+
+[Soft close that invites the reader to self-identify.]
+```
+
+**Why:** Anonymous second-person reassurance makes readers tag themselves in the comments ("I needed this today"). Comments over-index hard.
+
+**Warning:** This is the most formulaic creator-economy opener in the set. Effective but visibly engineered. Use no more than once or twice a month, and only when the reassurance is something you actually believe, or it reads as hollow.
+
+---
+
+## F13 - Bait-and-Switch Reversal
+
+**Reference:** 195k eng (top of the Startups/Tech corpus). Primary goal: **likes**.
+
+```
+Enough is enough. No more {beloved perk / standard practice} at {company / in my workflow}.
+
+We're also cutting {second thing}.
+
+[Beat of suspense: let the reader assume bad news.]
+
+[The reveal: it's actually an upgrade. Here's what we replaced it with and why it's better.]
+
+[What the change really stands for: the value underneath.]
+```
+
+**Why:** Fake bad news weaponizes loss aversion, then the positive reveal releases it. The whiplash is the engine.
+
+**Warning:** Only works if the reveal genuinely resolves positive. A real cut dressed as good news will get torn apart in the comments.
+
+---
+
+## F14 - Named Gratitude / Tribute
+
+**Reference:** 109k eng, but from a celebrity tribute reshare. The format helps; the fame did the heavy lifting. Primary goal: **reposts**.
+
+```
+To {Name}, {Name}, and {Name}: thank you for {the specific quality or thing they did}.
+
+[2-4 lines naming what each person or the group actually did. Specific, not generic praise.]
+
+[Why it mattered to you / to the work.]
+
+[One-line close that honors them, not you.]
+```
+
+**Why:** Publicly naming real people invites everyone tagged or adjacent to repost and amplify. Celebrating others gets shared far more than self-promotion.
+
+**Warning:** Name real people for real reasons. Tactical name-dropping to borrow reach is transparent and backfires.
+
+---
+
+## F15 - Explain-to-Kids Simplification
+
+**Reference:** 23k eng, 2,184 reposts. Primary goal: **saves** (LinkedIn exposes no public save count, so the high repost count stands in as the save-worthiness proxy here, not a sign this is a repost formula).
+
+```
+{Jargon term} explained to kids.
+
+Explanations for kids... and adults!
+
+{emoji} {TERM}: what does it stand for?
+{emoji} {first part} = {plain-language meaning}
+{emoji} {second part} = {plain-language meaning}
+[continue the scannable, emoji-anchored glossary]
+
+[One-line "now you'll never forget it" close.]
+```
+
+**Why:** A scannable, emoji-anchored simplification of something dense is saved and reshared as a reference. Works for any jargon-heavy field (finance, law, medicine, engineering).
+
+**Warning:** Keep the simplification correct. Condescending or wrong explanations of your own field destroy authority.
+
+---
+
+## F16 - Status-Strip Humility
+
+**Reference:** viral-tier on likes in the corpus (no exact count). Primary goal: **likes**.
+
+```
+Outside, I get called {impressive titles like founder, CEO, investor}.
+
+At home, none of that survives {the humbling moment}.
+
+[The scene that strips the status: a kid, a partner, a quiet failure.]
+
+[What the contrast taught you, in one or two lines.]
+```
+
+**Why:** Trading prestige for relatability converts authority into warmth. Senior people get likes by showing the human under the title.
+
+**Warning:** Don't humble-brag. The titles in line one should set up a genuine deflation, not a flex disguised as one.
+
+---
+
+## Engagement-goal split
+
+Pick the formula by what you want the post to earn. This split held across all 10 verticals in the 2026 corpus:
+
+| Goal | Earned by | Formulas |
+|---|---|---|
+| **Comments** | questions, contrarian/unpopular takes, vulnerability, self-tagging | F4 Confession, F10 Contrarian, F12 Permission Slip, F9 Curiosity-Gap |
+| **Reposts** | quotable maxims, tributes, "X isn't Y" distinctions | F14 Named Gratitude, F2 R.I.P., F8 Paid-vs-Free |
+| **Likes** | emotional stories, celebrations, status-strip, spectacle | F11 Emotional Cold-Open, F13 Bait-and-Switch, F16 Status-Strip |
+| **Saves** | simplifications, exact how-to, frameworks | F15 Explain-to-Kids, F7 Odd-Precision Money, F8 Paid-vs-Free |
+
+## Choosing which formula to use
+
+| Topic type | Best formula | Why |
+|---|---|---|
+| Platform/category argument | F1 Anaphora | Loss aversion stacks cleanly |
+| Industry era ending | F2 R.I.P. / F10 Contrarian | Force side-picking |
+| Personal year recap | F3 Year-over-Year / F4 Confession | Identity shift reads as earned |
+| Product demo in public | F5 Self-Proving Meta | Structural self-proof |
+| Big authority giveaway | F6 Comment-Gate / F8 Paid-vs-Free | List-building tier |
+| Founder build-log | F7 Odd-Precision Money | Screenshot-bait ledger |
+| Emergent/surprise story | F9 Curiosity-Gap | Scroll-lock hook |
+| Real story with emotional stakes | F11 Emotional Cold-Open | In-medias-res beats the warm-up |
+| Encouragement to a discouraged audience | F12 Permission Slip | Readers self-tag in comments |
+| Policy/process change that's an upgrade | F13 Bait-and-Switch | Fake bad news then relief |
+| Thanking mentors / team / a departing colleague | F14 Named Gratitude | Named people amplify it |
+| Demystifying jargon | F15 Explain-to-Kids | Save-worthy reference |
+| Senior person wanting warmth, not distance | F16 Status-Strip | Prestige traded for relatability |
+
+## Hook micro-rules
+
+- **"How I" beats "How to".** First-person experience ("How I cut CAC by 62%") outperforms generic instruction ("How to cut CAC") by 2-3x. Swap every "How to" hook to "How I" unless the post is a pure framework with no narrator.
+- **Specific number in the first sentence** raises expand-rate by ~35%. $873.47 beats $900. 40,000 beats "a lot of".
+- **Real failure in the first 3 lines** outperforms polished framing by **8.5x**. Lead with what broke.
+
+## Never do
+
+- Blend two hooks in one post (dilutes both)
+- Use F5 Self-Proving Meta if you won't actually keep the promise
+- Use F6 Comment-Gate more than once per month
+- Pair F7 Money Ledger with made-up numbers; readers know
+- Use F1 Anaphora to frame LinkedIn as inferior (algo penalty on LinkedIn)