I moved to Colorado and lost track of my friends.
Not all at once, and not on purpose. I still have every app. My friends back in Florida still have every app. But at some point the feed stopped showing me the people I know and started showing me people who are very good at being on camera.
And it works, that’s the annoying part. I watch. Then I close the app and realize I still have no idea what my friends in Florida are into these days.
That’s not a conspiracy. It’s just what those places are built to do. Somebody who posts four times a day is better for the business than a friend who posts twice a year. I get it. I just don’t want it.
The part that stuck with me
People will tell you about a bad experience forever. The contractor who never showed up. The company that charged them twice and made them call about it four times. Complaints travel fast, and we pass them along without anybody asking.
The good stuff doesn’t move like that. The thing somebody loves, the one they’d put right in your hands, usually stays quiet. Not because they’re hiding it. Nobody asked. And most of us never think to ask.
So Looped asks. One question a week, everybody at the same time. You answer before you can see anyone else’s, which keeps people from agreeing with whoever went first. The following Monday it opens all at once.
No followers, on purpose
There’s no count to grow here. No ranking, no brands, no sponsored questions, and nothing that pays anybody when you take a recommendation. Once a recommendation makes money for the person giving it, it stops being a recommendation. That part isn’t up for revisiting later. It’s the whole point.
The piece I care about most is the end of it. You go try the thing, and then you tell the person it worked. That’s the loop. Almost nothing else asks you to do that, and it’s the best part.
I don’t know if this scales, and I’m not sure I want it to. Right now it’s family and a few friends, ten invites each, handed out slowly. If it stays that size and I end up knowing what my friends in Florida are into again, I’ll call that a win.
Joel Pettigrew
Pettigrew Lab