The viral chart
During the World Cup, Juan made a chord diagram of where each player was born versus which country they play for (25 Curaçao players born in the Netherlands; a quarter of all World Cup players are foreign-born). It took three or four hours, he posted it to Reddit, and it hit about 880,000 views, ~3,500 upvotes, and roughly 200 visitors to the site every time a match starts. But two lessons undercut the win. First, viral doesn't equal monetizable: he added a donate button (nobody donated) and floated print-on-demand (didn't pursue it), and the flood of attention converted to nothing. Second, effort doesn't equal engagement: a second, more elaborate chart of the winners took two full days and did poorly, because it came out cluttered and unreadable, a blob of dots you can't parse at a glance, and he half-regrets it. The three-hour timely chart beat the two-day labored one. Simple, legible, and on the wave beats intricate and late, and a million eyeballs are not a business until something behind them converts.
// trace: where this idea came from
- ↳ video diary @ 21:33 (el gráfico de cuerdas lo hice en 3-4 horas, ~880,000 vistas, ~3500 upvotes, ~200 visitantes por partido)
- ↳ video diary @ 22:41 (intenté monetizarlo, botón de donar (nadie donó), imprimir en camisa (no lo hice))
- ↳ video diary @ 25:57 (el segundo gráfico me demoró 2 días y quedó polluido, ilegible; me arrepiento)
- ↳ Entry 263-1: Document your passion (el mismo poder de volverse viral, aquí sin conversión)
During the World Cup, Juan made a chord diagram of where each player was born versus which country they play for, and the hook wrote itself: 25 Curaçao players born in the Netherlands, a quarter of all World Cup players foreign-born. It took three or four hours, he posted it to Reddit, and it hit about 880,000 views, roughly 3,500 upvotes, and around 200 visitors to the site every time a match kicks off ▸ 21:33. It’s exactly the go-viral-from-anywhere power in action.
el gráfico de 3 horas se hizo viral; el de 2 días quedó ilegible →
But two lessons undercut the win. First, viral doesn’t equal monetizable: he added a donate button and nobody donated, floated print-on-demand and didn’t pursue it, and all that attention converted to nothing ▸ 22:41. Second, effort doesn’t equal engagement: a second, more elaborate chart of the winners took two full days and did poorly, because it came out cluttered and unreadable, “polluido”, a blob of dots you can’t parse at a glance, and he half-regrets making it ▸ 25:57. The three-hour timely chart beat the two-day labored one. Simple, legible, and on the wave beats intricate and late, and a million eyeballs are not a business until something behind them converts…
// continued in
no entry has continued this idea yet: the arc is still open