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  • Idea Of The Day - Chess has ELO for rankings—academia needs one too. Build it!

Idea Of The Day - Chess has ELO for rankings—academia needs one too. Build it!

GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering a daily ideas to revolutionize how researchers are ranked.

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Here’s what we’ve got for you today.

  • Daily Idea - Rank Researchers Fairly.

  • AI Prompt to Product

Fair Rankings for Researchers

The One Liner

Rank researchers like chess players.

The 140 character tweet (or X) version

Citations are slow, h-index is broken. What if researchers had an ELO score that updated in real-time based on real impact?

The Longer Story Version

The Problem

Measuring research impact is a mess.

Citations? Lagging indicator. h-index? Easy to game. Journal impact factor? A joke.

Right now, academic careers depend on outdated, bloated metrics that reward quantity over quality. A researcher in AI can rack up citations overnight, while a historian’s most impactful work might take decades to get noticed.

None of it captures real influence, collaboration, or who’s actually pushing their field forward.

The Solution

What if we ranked researchers like chess players?

A dynamic, ELO-style rating that adjusts in real time based on actual impact.

Here’s how it works:

  • Matchups that make sense – Instead of raw counts, a researcher’s score moves based on how their work compares to peers. Publish something groundbreaking? Your rating climbs. Work gets debunked? It drops.

  • Live rankings – No more waiting years for citations to roll in. Your rating adjusts as new research lands and gets recognized.

  • No more gaming the system – Self-citations, spammy publishing, and junk journals won’t inflate scores. Your rating only moves when real impact happens.

  • Cross-discipline friendly – AI vs. biology vs. philosophy? Doesn’t matter. The system adapts to different research tempos.

It’s like a live leaderboard for academia—except instead of favoring volume, it rewards real influence.

How We’d Build It

This is fully doable with existing tools:

Why It Needs to Exist

Because academia shouldn’t be a broken scoreboard.

This fixes hiring, tenure, and funding decisions by making them based on real, evolving impact—not outdated metrics that reward volume over value.

It’s not for everyone. But if you care about ranking researchers fairly and transparently, this flips the game.

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GTM: With AI Prompts

The explosion of AI-driven app-building tools like Bolt, Lovable, and v0 has changed how startups bring their ideas to life. Instead of spending months (or years) building a product, founders can now generate functional web apps in days through natural language interactions. This shift has made it easier than ever to validate ideas and start acquiring users. But having a product isn't enough—you need a go-to-market (GTM) strategy that turns your early prototype into a real business.

Here’s how to think about going to market, leveraging the latest AI tools to accelerate the process.

1. Define Your Market & Positioning

Before you even start acquiring users, get clear on who your product is for and why they should care.

  • Target Audience: Are you solving a problem for consumers, businesses, or a niche group?

  • Pain Points: What urgent problem does your product solve for them?

  • Messaging: How can you communicate your value proposition in a simple, compelling way?

💡 Tools to Use:

  • ChatGPT or Claude: Help refine your positioning and craft messaging.

  • SparkToro or Audience Insights (Meta, X): Identify where your audience spends time online.

2. Validate Demand Quickly

Rather than spending months building a full-fledged product, validate demand with landing pages, waitlists, and pre-sales.

  • Launch a landing page with a clear value prop and a CTA (e.g., sign up, join a waitlist, book a demo).

  • Run a smoke test with ads to see if people are willing to click and convert.

  • Reach out to potential users directly via communities like Reddit, Discord, and industry Slack groups.

💡 Tools to Use:

  • Carrd or Typedream: Quick landing page builders.

  • Beehiiv or ConvertKit: Email collection and nurture sequences.

  • Google Ads or Meta Ads: Test demand with small ad budgets.

3. Leverage AI for Product Development

If you’re non-technical, AI can now handle most of the heavy lifting for building your product.

  • Use text-to-web tools like Bolt or Lovable to generate the first version of your web app.

  • Integrate features like authentication (via Clerk), databases (Supabase), and payments (Stripe).

  • Export your code and refine it with AI-powered dev tools like Cursor or Windsurf.

💡 Tools to Use:

4. Find & Acquire Your First Users

Once you have a working product, shift focus to customer acquisition. Start by going where your users already are.

  • Community-led growth: Engage in Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and LinkedIn groups relevant to your niche.

  • Cold outreach: Email or DM potential users to offer early access or a free trial.

  • Content marketing: Share case studies, tutorials, and user stories to attract organic traffic.

💡 Tools to Use:

5. Monetize & Scale Up

Once you validate user demand, explore monetization strategies.

  • Subscription models: If users are getting consistent value, charge a monthly fee.

  • One-time payments: Sell lifetime access or charge per-use.

  • B2B partnerships: Offer white-label solutions or integrate into existing platforms.

💡 Tools to Use:

  • Stripe or Lemon Squeezy: Handle payments and subscriptions.

  • Gumroad or Paddle: Sell digital products with ease.

  • Outseta: Manage user authentication, billing, and CRM in one place.

Wrapping Up: Speed is the New Moat

The biggest advantage of today’s AI-driven tools is speed. You can go from idea to MVP to revenue in weeks, not months. Instead of overthinking, start testing. Build a simple version, get feedback, and iterate quickly. The faster you validate and acquire users, the better your chances of building a real business.

With the right AI tools and GTM strategy, launching a startup has never been easier.

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