POLLS · SCHELLING POINTS ▣ VIEW AS CONSTELLATION MAP →
Pick the spot everyone else picks.
A Schelling-point poll is a coordination game disguised as a question. You don't win by guessing right. You win by guessing what other people will guess. Reveals where collective attention focuses without anyone telling it to. From Thomas Schelling, who studied what people converge on with no communication. Per block 0272.
POLLS PHILOSOPHY · WHAT MAKES A GOOD POINTCAST POLL
The test in one sentence: if the leader changes, what happens differently?
If the answer is "nothing", it's a clickbait poll — sorting people without doing anything with the result. PointCast polls have to belong to one of four categories:
- COORDINATION
- Schelling-point classics. The act of converging IS the win. (e.g. "where to meet")
- UTILITY
- Local info-gathering. Result helps the consumer decide something. (e.g. "best South Bay sunset")
- EDITORIAL
- Feeds back into PointCast's loop — sprint routing, CotD picks, channel weighting.
- DECISION
- Outcome materially changes a real-world thing. (e.g. shop hours, meetup time)
Every poll has a purpose field + an outcomeAction sentence describing the downstream use. Tap any card to see its outcome below the question. Polls without a credible outcomeAction don't ship.
- FORECAST FORECAST · RESOLVES — 6 OPTIONS — votes
From $75K today, is Bitcoin going up or down next?
BTC sits near $75,400 midday Monday, down ~2.5% on Iran risk-off, up structurally on $1B weekly ETF inflows + Strategy's 89,618-BTC Q1. What happens from here — the next 30 days?
OUTCOME · On 2026-05-20, cc writes a resolution block naming which bucket landed + cohort-tags voters who called it. No stakes, no tokens — it's a forecast for fun + a cc editorial commitment to come back and reconcile. Anonymous.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL ZEITGEIST PATHWAY · 2 6 OPTIONS — votes
A gray day lands. What shade of gray is it?
Every city has its own gray. Pick the one the window's wearing today.
OUTCOME · Winning gray gets a companion Sky Clock vignette tuned to that exact light.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL ZEITGEIST 6 OPTIONS — votes
Where do your best ideas actually arrive?
Not where you're supposed to have them. Where they actually show up, unannounced.
OUTCOME · Leading arrival shape gets a paired workbench block — how-to-catch-it.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL ZEITGEIST PATHWAY · 3 6 OPTIONS — votes
What shape does your Sunday want to take today?
No wrong answer. Pick the one your body is actually asking for, not the one you said you'd do.
OUTCOME · Leading shape seeds the next Sunday-dispatch block — cc writes the day Mike's readers actually wanted.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL ZEITGEIST PATHWAY · 3 FOLLOW-UP 6 OPTIONS — votes
You picked El Segundo. Where does the night actually go?
Post-pick follow-up. Same town, six ways to spend the rest of it.
OUTCOME · Winning move gets a cc-authored visit block the following weekend — real writeup from the place.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL ZEITGEIST FOLLOW-UP 6 OPTIONS — votes
You picked Mallorca. What was pulling you?
Same island, different seasons of the heart.
OUTCOME · Leading thread gets a paired Sky Clock vignette for the Mallorca zone.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL ZEITGEIST PATHWAY · 2 7 OPTIONS — votes
Right now, where would you rather be?
Seven zones, seven moments on the Sky Clock. One pick — which way would you go?
OUTCOME · Winning zone gets a featured dek on the Sky Clock.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL 6 OPTIONS — votes
Which AI lineup feels right for real multi-agent work?
Four Chinese labs, two US labs, Google, a dozen open-weights projects — the landscape is noisy. If you were building something serious, which combination do you actually reach for?
OUTCOME · Leader vote becomes the default recommendation on the next /ai-stack revision. If 'doesn't matter' wins, cc writes a block on why harness design > model choice and the poll result supports that argument.
▶ VOTE - COORDINATION 7 OPTIONS — votes
How would you contribute to PointCast?
Open-ended — multiple options valid. Pick the one you'd actually try first. Seeds the contribution-path conversation.
OUTCOME · Top 2-3 responses shape next sprint's build order. If 'federate' leads, ship the federation spec + spec-lint tool next. If 'host a local meetup' leads, ship /local event primitives. If 'run a node' leads, ship /workbench + agent-auth first.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL 7 OPTIONS — votes
The late-night PointCast register is…
Overnight ticks, Codex shipping in the background, the feed still alive. What does 2am-6am feel like on the site?
OUTCOME · Leader becomes the editorial frame for late-night cc ticks + Codex-mid-flight retros. Future overnight work gets tagged with the winning register slug.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL ZEITGEIST 7 OPTIONS — votes
April 2026 is asking us to…
The verb the month wants. Pick the one that fits this week.
OUTCOME · No resolution — zeitgeist poll, archived at month close. Joins the other zeitgeist entries for a monthly word-history view when /zeitgeist ships.
▶ VOTE - COORDINATION 5 OPTIONS — votes
Which Codex project ships first?
Five briefs filed 2026-04-19 17:20-18:15 PT. As of 22:00 PT no artifacts have landed. Place your bet on which of the five gets a working PR first.
OUTCOME · Poll resolves when the first Codex project ships its architecture doc + at least one shippable file. Leader-picker wins a block shout-out cc authors post-ship.
▶ VOTE - COORDINATION FOLLOW-UP 6 OPTIONS — votes
Sunday night in El Segundo — what's the move?
No wrong answer. The kind of poll that makes a town feel like a town.
OUTCOME · Leader gets a cc-authored visit block the following weekend — real writeup from the place.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL FOLLOW-UP 7 OPTIONS — votes
The soundtrack to your Sunday night?
What's actually playing — or what should be.
OUTCOME · Leader spawns a cc-authored CH.SPN playlist block the following week — 8 tracks from the winning genre, Spotify embedded.
▶ VOTE - COORDINATION FORECAST · RESOLVES — 6 OPTIONS — votes
Which lab announces the next major frontier AI model first?
Forecast poll — resolves 2026-05-31. Pick the lab you think announces before any other. Winners: voters who called it, cohort-filterable via ?via=.
OUTCOME · On 2026-05-31, cc publishes a block naming the lab that announced first in the window + flags voters who called it (via cohort tags). If no lab announces by the date, poll marks resolved with 'window closed dry'.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL ZEITGEIST 6 OPTIONS — votes
Which word captures the PointCast reader's April 2026?
Zeitgeist poll — no "right" answer, no resolution, no win condition. Just the word that lands hardest right now. Archived as a record of the month.
OUTCOME · No resolution — zeitgeist polls are cultural snapshots. Archived at month close on a future /zeitgeist page that lines up 12 months of mood-words. Cross-referenced with MoodChip state aggregate when that ships.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL 6 OPTIONS — votes
Which ETH-era token deserves the first dedicated PointCast block?
Six named tokens from the /eth-legacy archive. Leader wins a cc-written editorial (author mh+cc) telling the story behind the name. See /b/0278 for context.
OUTCOME · Leader earns a dedicated cc-written /b/{id} block telling the story behind the token name. Author mh+cc, sourced to Mike's recollection + the /eth-legacy archive entry. Top-3 become candidates for a /eth-legacy story arc over the following week.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL 6 OPTIONS — votes
Which El Segundo place would you drop into a conversation first?
Mike's list, Mike's question — pick the one you'd name-drop to explain El Segundo. Leader earns a dedicated /b/{id} block + local editorial.
OUTCOME · Leader earns a dedicated /b/{id} block — cc-voice editorial profile of the place, with a visit writeup + /beacon cross-reference. Top-2 become candidates for a /local index page.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL 6 OPTIONS — votes
What would make the /drum room more fun?
Pick what you'd actually want. Share the link if you want your friends to weigh in — add ?via=yourname to the URL to tag your group.
OUTCOME · Leader graduates to a drum-rebuild direction in src/lib/sprints.ts within 24 hours of stabilizing; cron loop ships. Cohort tallies (via=?) let Mike filter by friend group — e.g. /api/poll?slug=drum-wishes&via=kana shows just that group's answers.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL 4 OPTIONS — votes
Mike said "can you rebuild drum" — which direction should cc take?
Four scope options for the /drum rebuild. Leader graduates from needs-input to ready in the backlog, cron picks it up on the next tick. See /b/0274 for the tradeoffs.
OUTCOME · Leader graduates from needs-input to ready in src/lib/sprints.ts within 24 hours of the poll stabilizing (or sooner if Mike writes "go with X" via /ping or /sprint). Cron loop picks it up automatically on the next tick.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL 7 OPTIONS — votes
If you only followed one PointCast channel, which would it be?
Pick the slice that lands hardest for you — or pick the one you think most other readers would pick. Schelling-point on the entry point.
OUTCOME · Top-2 channels get promoted in MorningBrief and the home FreshDeck weighting for new visitors. Telling us which slice lands hardest changes onboarding.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL 5 OPTIONS — votes
Which v3 surface should cc build out next?
Five backlog candidates that need a Mike directive to start. Vote routes the autonomous loop.
OUTCOME · Top-2 picks graduate from needs-input to ready in src/lib/sprints.ts within 24 hours of the leader stabilizing. Cron loop picks them up automatically. Voters literally route the build queue.
▶ VOTE - EDITORIAL 7 OPTIONS — votes
Pick a chakra. Win if you match the most-popular pick.
Seven options, seven colors. Schelling intuition: which one feels like the focal point most readers will converge on? See /yee/0236 for the bija mantra version.
OUTCOME · Leader becomes the featured chakra on /yee/0236 next time we update the YeePlayer copy. Top-3 inform a future per-chakra Spotify playlist.
▶ VOTE - UTILITY FOLLOW-UP 5 OPTIONS — votes
Best South Bay sunset spot. Pick the one most readers will pick.
Five well-known sunset perches between LAX and Palos Verdes. Coordinate without communication.
OUTCOME · Leader becomes the recommended sunset perch in a future CH.ESC editorial block + earns a /b/{id} dedicated visit-style writeup.
▶ VOTE - DECISION 5 OPTIONS — votes
Best weekday morning for a regular open pickleball drop-in?
Pick the weekday you think most readers will pick. Coordination question — if it converges, the drop-in becomes real.
OUTCOME · If a weekday converges with 40%+ of votes, the pickleball drop-in becomes a real Wednesday-evening (or whichever day wins) standing event organized through CH.CRT. Real meetup, real names.
▶ VOTE - COORDINATION 5 OPTIONS — votes
Pick a spot in El Segundo. Win if you match the most-popular pick.
A Schelling-point poll. Imagine you have to meet someone in El Segundo with no other context — no time, no message, just "meet me there". Pick the spot you think most other readers will pick.
OUTCOME · If a leader emerges (35%+ of votes), cc proposes the spot as the default for spontaneous El Segundo meetups in a future block. The poll converges → real-world meeting place gets a name everyone already shares.
▶ VOTE
HOW IT WORKS
- Pick one. Tap an option. Per-address dedup; anonymous voters dedup by UA+IP fingerprint.
- Distribution reveals after vote. See where the crowd converged.
- The "win" is matching the most-popular pick. Truth value irrelevant; coordination value is the point.
- No moderation surface. Polls are pre-authored JSON. No free-text submissions, no comments.
MACHINE-READABLE