How I Used the Content Curve to Develop the Content Curve
The best frameworks don't create new patterns—they reveal existing ones. Looking back through my development materials for the Content Curve, I realized I’d unknowingly followed my own methodology before I’d even fully articulated it. Let me show you what I mean.
The Messy Beginning — Initiate (0–20%)
Take a look at these handwritten notes from my early thinking about AI and creativity. They're messy, unstructured, and deeply unselfconscious—exactly what the Initiate phase calls for. I was working through big questions about ChatGPT and human creativity, scribbling down half-formed analogies about potter's wheels and the artistic process.
What strikes me when I read this now is how raw and unpolished these thoughts were. I hadn't yet landed on the term "Content Curve," but I was already exploring the core tension between human originality and AI-powered scale. The potter's wheel analogy (which ended up not showing up in the framework but was still central to its development) emerged from this kind of free-form exploration.
Shaping It Up — Scale (20–80%)
Of course, I used AI tools to help develop a framework about using AI tools. The screenshots show how I used optical character recognition (OCR) to digitize my messy handwritten notes, then fed them into ChatGPT to help explore different angles and implications.
This middle phase was exactly what we now call Scale—using AI to rapidly iterate, prototype, and explore different possibilities. I generated multiple versions of:
Modular components of the core white paper
Various subheadlines and descriptions
Case studies examining the framework through different professional lenses
Blog post angles targeting different audiences
I even used AI to refine my AI prompts (shown above), which further corroborated the iterative nature of the Scale phase. I was constantly tweaking and adjusting how I communicated with the AI to get better results.
I want to underscore an important point: It’s not like I took a process that would have taken months and completed it in days. No, it still took me a long time to develop and write all of this Content Curve material. The difference is I was able to do so much more—brainstorm, develop, throw away, and try again many times over—in a similar amount of time.
Back to Humanity — Refine (80–100%)
The final visualization of the Content Curve didn't just appear fully formed. It evolved through countless iterations, each one getting closer to capturing the essence of what I was trying to convey. The elegant simplicity of the final curve belies the complex journey of its creation.
The Meta Insight
The process of developing the Content Curve framework was itself a perfect example of the Content Curve in action. Before we had even named these phases, we were living them:
Starting with messy, handwritten explorations
Using AI tools to help us scale and iterate
Carefully refining the final framework with human judgment
The very document you're reading—a blog post about how the framework developed—is itself going through these phases. From initial concept to rapid development of examples to final polish, it demonstrates the fractal nature of creative work: the same patterns repeat at every scale.
A Living Framework
This self-referential analysis offers two valuable insights:
The Framework is Natural: The fact that these phases emerged organically in developing the framework itself suggests we're describing something fundamental about creative work, not imposing some sort of artificial structure.
The Process is Fractal: The same three phases appear at every level—from developing individual pieces like this blog post to creating entire frameworks like the Creativity Curve itself.
I'd love to hear your thoughts: Have you noticed similar patterns in your work? How do you balance the analog side of your work with the scaling power of new tools? Drop a comment below or reach out.
This post is part of our ongoing exploration of the Content Curve framework. For a comprehensive overview, check out our white paper: "The Content Curve: Leading on the Edges in the Age of AI."
