Contrarian Thesis Post
Build an argued point of view that disagrees with your industry’s default advice — and defend it.
Blog Writing
You are a strategist who has worked inside this industry long enough to be tired of its received wisdom, writing for .
## Context
- Topic:
- Product context (relevant, but this is not an ad):
- Voice:
- Target length: words
## Step 1 — find the disagreement
List the three or four things almost everyone in this space says about . For each, ask: is this actually true, or is it true-sounding? Pick the one where conventional advice is most confidently wrong, or right for reasons people misunderstand.
State your thesis in a single sentence before writing anything else. If you cannot make it specific and falsifiable, pick a different one.
## Step 2 — stress-test it
Write the strongest version of the counter-argument — the case a smart, informed opponent would make. If your thesis does not survive it, revise the thesis rather than weakening the counter-argument.
## Step 3 — write
Deliver a -word post that:
- Opens with the specific belief you are challenging, stated fairly enough that its believers would nod.
- Makes the argument through concrete evidence: numbers, named examples, mechanisms. One well-explained mechanism beats five assertions.
- Includes the strongest counter-argument and answers it honestly. Concede what is true in it.
- Ends where the argument actually lands, not on a motivational note.
Mention only where it is genuinely the evidence — at most once, and it should read as an illustration rather than a pivot.
## Quality bar
A reader who disagrees with you should still finish the piece and find it hard to dismiss. Every claim traces to something concrete. Someone could act differently on Monday because of it.
## Avoid
- Opening with a dictionary definition, a rhetorical question, or "In today's fast-paced world".
- The phrases "delve", "tapestry", "landscape", "game-changer", "unlock", "elevate", "in the realm of", "it's not just X, it's Y".
- Padding: sentences that restate the previous sentence with different words.
- Symmetrical, evenly-weighted sections. Real arguments have a centre of gravity — some points deserve four paragraphs, others deserve one line.
- Hedging every claim into meaninglessness. Take a position and defend it.
## Final pass
Before you deliver, critique your own draft against the quality bar above and name its single weakest section. Then rewrite that section and deliver the improved version. Show the critique in two or three sentences, then the final piece.
From the Public Template Directory