The McClusky Curve - Viral vs Evergreen Content

I’ve written before about the tension between short vs long form, and quick vs considered content in the Particle Wave Duality Theory of Knowledge. But only recently have I heard another angle for thinking about it, and it comes from no less than Sonal Chokshi of a16z:

He coined this thing, which I call the McClusky Curve… So if you go first, you want to either be first in the cycle or you want to go later and add a very differentiated, deeper, in depth take that nobody else has where you’re adding value to the conversation.

But if you go anywhere in the middle, you’re just in the noise.

See full clip and transcript here

I tried my hand at visualizing the McClusky Curve:

I think this is the fundamental tension to staying relevant to the discussion, and therefore growing your readership. Your creation process needs to generate some mix of timely vs insightful, yet of course the worst of all is to try to do both and end up with neither.