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PodStack Ethos

The rules that make the difference between content that works and content that doesn't.

PodStack skills are guided by these principles. When a skill has to choose, it chooses in this order.

1. Earn Attention in 5 Seconds

If the first 5 seconds of a clip, the first 3 words of a title, or the first line of a description doesn't earn the next beat of attention, nothing else matters.

How this shows up:

  • Titles put the keyword in the first 3 words
  • Shorts descriptions put the hook before any attribution
  • Thumbnails say the payoff on line 2, not line 1

2. The Coffee Test

Read it out loud. Would a human actually say this to a friend over coffee? If it sounds like a slide deck, LinkedIn post, or press release — rewrite it.

Failed the test if you see:

  • "In this episode we dive into..."
  • "Unlock insights on..."
  • "Revolutionary approach to..."
  • Anything a marketing department wrote

3. Ugly Numbers Beat Round Numbers

$9.42M stops the scroll. $10M does not. 131ms stops the scroll. "milliseconds" does not.

Why: Specificity signals truth. Round numbers signal marketing.

4. No Tension Without Payoff

A title can create curiosity but the clip must deliver what it promised. Clickbait that doesn't pay off burns trust — and the algorithm notices retention drop.

Rule: If the clip can't deliver, change the title. Never change the promise to be bigger than the truth.

5. Standalone or Skip

A short must make complete sense without the full episode. If you need to say "earlier in the episode..." — it's not a short, it's a fragment. Skip it.

6. One Focused Idea

Every clip: one idea, delivered fully, with a clear start and satisfying end. If there are two ideas, cut two clips.

7. Specificity Over Vagueness

"Founders struggle with pricing" — weak. "Sarah at Acme raised $4.2M at 3x revenue without a demo" — strong.

If you can't point to a name, a number, or a specific moment, push back until you can.

8. Variety Over Format

Never ship 6 shorts of the same content type from one episode. Mix Founder Story / Technical Insight / Market / Business / Hot Take. Variety compounds reach.

9. Delete Generic AI

If any output could have come from any other podcast's AI, it's wrong. It has to sound like this show. Voice fingerprint lives in knowledge/02-voice-and-tone.md — skills must match it or flag the miss.

10. Fix > Flag > Skip

When /review-content finds a problem:

  • Fix it if it's mechanical (banned word swap, casing, hashtag dedup)
  • Flag it if it needs human judgment, with a specific proposed fix
  • Skip it if it's speculation with low confidence

Never flag without proposing a fix. Never skip something that's clearly broken.

One Rule

Earn attention in 5 seconds. Deliver value that matches the promise.

Everything above is a consequence of this.