The Shiny Dime Challenge

A Shiny Dime is a specific and surprising idea. It's the singular focus of a piece of writing. And it's a concept that will help you capture attention in a crowded world.

Hey writers,

Welcome to week four of the Shiny Dime challenge. Last week, you learned how to compress your writing by going for density, not brevity. That was the final lesson in learning the Fundamentals of Shiny Dimes. This week, we’re shifting our focus to the three different types of Shiny Dimes: one-liners, coined phrases, and stories. Today’s lesson: the one-sentence summary. 

The One-Sentence Summary

Your Shiny Dime isn’t specific enough until you can summarize it in one sentence. If you can’t distill the main idea of your essay into a snappy one-liner, it’s probably too broad — or, you haven’t figured out what you’re trying to say. 

Why should you master the one-sentence summary? Most online writers don’t know how to compress their ideas, so impactful one-liners are valuable because they’re rare. A one-sentence summary is memorable and meme-able, sticky and spiky. It helps you:

• Understand what you’re trying to say
• Craft a spiky point of view
• And make your idea stand out.

Put simply, one-sentence summaries are the fast-track to building influence online. That’s why all great writers are able to compress their ideas into sticky one-liners and spiky headlines.

Derek Sivers is a master at it. He takes dense, dynamic topics and distills them into easily accessible ideas (hence, his 291,000+ followers on X). His one-line zingers don’t just delight and excite his readers; they open a gateway to another world by making big ideas approachable. That’s why his tiny URLs (e.g., sive.rs/relax) are plastered all over the Internet.

For example: 

• Relax for the same result.
• Explorers are bad leaders.
• Art is useless, and so am I.
• The higher the price, the more they value it.
• Be an extreme character.
• Detailed dreams blind you to new means.
• Your heroes show which way you’re facing.
• Cut out everything that’s not surprising. (Can you guess why this one’s our favorite?)

See how these one-liners stick in your mind? Like a shiny dime on the sidewalk, they’re specific enough to catch your eye and small enough to fit in your pocket. What gets compressed gets remembered. By writing and sharing essays that all have a clear Shiny Dime, Derek Sivers has built a successful career. And who knows? You could be next. 

This week, your mission is to look for one-sentence summaries in the wild. Pay attention to what you consume (Twitter threads, news articles, YouTube videos, podcast clips, TV commercials, roadside billboards) and try to identify Shiny Dimes. Attune your taste to detecting specific and surprising ideas, so that, when it’s time, you can create them with ease. 

Today, head into Circle to read your peer’s Shiny Dimes from last week. You’ll receive your new writing prompt and access to this week’s Circle space on Wednesday. 

Good luck, and happy (Shiny Dime) hunting! 

The Write of Passage Team