# Cross-builder pilot - invite template Copy and paste into email or DM. Personalize the bracketed slots. The protocol asks for under three hours of total participation across a four-week window - including the writing, the build, the recipient handoff, and the debrief. --- **Subject:** Quick ask - a 3-hour experiment, you build, I learn whether a tool works Hi [name], I'm running a small experiment over [July] and I want to ask you to be one of three builders in it. It's three hours of your time across four weeks. I'd cover your dinner the night we debrief. The experiment is on something I've been working on called Keep a Value - a one-page contract that names who a project is for, what changes for them, and how you'd know the change happened. The format is at (the README is a 5-minute read). I've been using it on my own projects. I want to know whether it works when someone else uses it, because I am also its author and that is a conflict of interest the standard itself names. Here's the shape: 1. You bring **one project you actually own**, with a real recipient - something you'd be working on anyway in [July]. The project doesn't need to be public; what you build doesn't need to be shipped. 2. You pick **two distinct sub-problems within that project** at intake. 3. We flip a coin. One sub-problem you write a VALUE.md for and build against. The other you write a plain description of and build against. The order is randomized. 4. The recipient - the person you're building for - evaluates both deliverables blind to which is which. 5. We do a 45-minute debrief. I will pay for your time as $200 to your favorite charity or a thank-you of your choice. Real budget, not a hand-wave. What I'd want from you to know if you can do this: - **Eligibility check:** have you shipped three or more projects aimed at a specific recipient (anything - software, writing, a class you taught, a campaign)? If yes, you qualify. - **The four-week window:** I can be flexible by ±1 week. The two passes need to be at least three weeks apart so the first doesn't contaminate the second. - **Privacy:** your name, your project, and your recipient all stay private by default. You can opt in to attribution. The writeup will use "Builder A" until you say otherwise. Two short replies cover it: - Yes / no / let me think about it. - If yes, the project you'd bring and roughly when you'd want the window. If you're not the right person but you know someone who is, I'd love an intro. Thanks for reading, Natan --- **Notes for the inviter (delete before sending):** - Send no more than five invites before checking responses. The pilot needs three slots; over-recruiting creates a different problem (which builder do you drop?). - Track responses in `recruitment.md` (gitignored). Date sent, date replied, verdict, reason if no. - If a recipient asks "what's a VALUE.md?", the answer is "a one-page contract - three sentences and a gate - read the README." Don't sell. The standard either lands on cold reading or it doesn't. - The $200-to-charity figure is the floor; raise it for builders whose work would otherwise be billable at much higher rates. The principle is: do not ask for free labor in service of an experiment that benefits the asker.