Modal Subtraction

Use it for

Ship the Messy Middle as the Product

The prompt

I am working on: [YOUR TOPIC OR PROBLEM]
My audience is: [AUDIENCE — e.g., knowledge entrepreneurs, B2B founders, executive coaches]

Step 1 — Generate 20 distinct angles, takes, or solutions on this topic. Number them. Be genuinely varied — different framings, different stakes, different units of analysis.

Step 2 — Now generate the 5 most modal takes: the things that every expert in this space is already saying. The conventional wisdom. The LinkedIn consensus. Number them M1 through M5.

Step 3 — Go through your 20 candidates. Strike out any that semantically overlap with M1–M5. Show me only the survivors.

Step 4 — For each survivor, run a skeptic pass: is this defensible, or am I just being contrarian for its own sake? Rate each survivor "defensible / contrarian-for-its-own-sake / needs-more-evidence" and explain in one line.

Step 5 — Recommend the strongest 2–3 survivors and tell me what each one would need to be turned into a real piece of work.

Worked example

No worked example recorded yet.