The 4-hat process (the only writing workflow that doesn’t melt your brain)

This is the most useful part.

Artist hat: dump the raw material

No structure. No rules. Just ideas on the page.

Only requirement: know your grand payoff.

Architect hat: build the order

Now you cut weak ideas and arrange the steps that climb to the payoff.

This is where the video becomes a movie, not a rant.

Writer hat: connect the dots

Now you write the actual script in full.

And here’s the small trick that’s weirdly powerful:

At the top, write three lines:

• Goal: what “success” looks like for the viewer
• Failure: what goes wrong / what risk they fear
• Emotion: what they should feel as they progress

That forces every section to do something: progress, regress, or shift emotion.

So you don’t get that dead, flat “informational sludge.”

Wizard hat: retention surgery

Now you go through the script and highlight every payoff—every moment the viewer goes:

• “Oh.”
• “Wait—seriously?”
• “That’s clever.”
• “I didn’t know that.”

If you see big unhighlighted deserts, that’s where people leave.

• Simple. Brutal. Accurate.