Four Steps I Use to Copy Dan Koe
…and the exact steps you can copy to learn from anyone
Silk leaf here and steel follows:
I’m a fan of studying popularity, which is the foundation of impact (the dark side) and control (the bright side).
My framework for popularity is simple.
On the surface, the only currency people truly own is attention (not time). When the people around you mention something often enough - online, at lunch, at dinner - you start paying attention. Once your attention coin gets spent, from that moment on, the hook isn’t pleasure-it’s loss aversion. Missing the next update feels like losing something you already ‘paid’ for, so you keep spending attention and become part of popularity.
At the core, popularity is engineering. The people who win aren’t just loud - they run a framework that lets their ideas cut through the sticky attention barrier, and land. That is the part I’m obsessed with.
Since mid-2025, Dan Koe’s name has been everywhere for me. My first instinct was: not for me. I’m not a solopreneur. I’m not running a one-person business. But his name kept showing up- feeds and colleague conversations. My attention wallet is bleeding, and I decided to jump in to check the core.
I bought the subscription one week ago. Frankly, I read about 15–20 of his most recent pieces. And my conclusion was simple: he’s not only worth researching:
This dude is someone worth copying.
To me, “copy” has never been a shame word. Copy is the shining engine of human civilization. Real copying is like adding one amazing brushstroke to an oil painting-your painting gains more texture, more wisdom, more depth. Only shallow copying - copying just to look the same - is shame.
My life, honestly, is a long sequence of actively seeking people worth copying: the Buddha, Jesus Christ, Bruce Lee, Jim Rogers, Peter Thiel, Charlie Munger, Robert Kiyosaki, Ray Dalio, Alan Turing, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Sol LeWitt… and many more. At different phases of my life, I copied them intensely -then they stopped being “them,” and became part of me.
What I want to share here is the four-step system I use, in last 10+ years, to copy a person -cleanly, aggressively.
Hope this can help you to add a great brushstroke on your painting too.
Step 1 (THE MOST Important!) Extract his vocabulary-and speak in it.
Opinions are buildings. Words are materials.
Before you study the blueprint, you check what it’s made of.
Most people copy the finished structure. The punchline. The conclusion. The vibe. But the structure isn’t the source. The materials are. The words they repeat. The phrases they pivot with.
So Step 1： Collect materials. No judgment (never check their lens / view /solution first).
I sort the material into three buckets:
Core nouns: what “things” exist in their world?
Identity? Systems? Leverage? Desire? Markets?Core verbs: what actions actually move anything?
build / ship / design / compound / prune…Constraint + turning words: how do they force precision?
but / instead / therefore / the point is…
One rule: don’t define everything yet. Circle what you don’t understand. Count frequency. Track what words travel together.
I make the prompt free for everyone here.
This is a Dan Koe linguistic report from above prompt:
Step 2: Use his tools
First of the first, use his words.
Wittgenstein basically says your language sets the boundaries of your world. So if you want to really understand someone, don’t just translate their words-use their words. That’s the fastest way to step into how they experience reality.
From the step 1, we have already have Dan’s linguistic report.
Below is the prompt that force yourself to write in his words. Use his words * 100 times.
Second, focus on the tools Dan uses.
I want to emphasize that tools-and the ultimate tool is language-shape the human mind. Tools include physical tools, software (Dan is building his own tool, Eden), and methods (which Dan often turns into prompts).
AI has made it easier than ever to apply another person’s thinking. Dan has already translated much of his thinking into prompts-you can read them all there. The only thing you need to do is open your LLM and practice.
Yesterday, I practiced his latest “Life Prompt,” and it helped me finally see the book I’ve been thinking about writing. Honestly, I’m in my early 40s, and I’ve met and talked to so many people that I’d lost my drive to write a book and teach anything. But his prompt re-ignited that drive-and made the decision feel obvious. That’s the power of thought.
I may, or may not finish this book. But you can check the one take communication between me and LLM by using Dan’s prompt. Useful.
I have no business relationship with Dan. But we spend about $18k to $20k a year on info products and memberships. I’m like a gourmet who’s sampled a lot of “flavors,” so I’m picky-yet even then, simply applying Dan’s prompts in real life feels worth $100 a year on its own.
Absolutely. Here are Step 3 + Step 4 rewritten to match your voice-tight, metaphor-heavy, a bit “hard,” and clean.
Step 3：Copy his refusals and install the constraints.
Most people copy the output. Just like stupid younger me in my teens-I copied people’s clothes and thought I was copying them. That’s like stealing a building’s façade and thinking you own the architecture.
It’s the refusal system-the constraint system-that makes the conclusion inevitable.So Step 3 is: copy what he refuses to do, and copy the constraints he installs.His results are downstream of his boundaries.
I do it like this: I build a “Constraint File” for the person. If you want it even more “hard,” I can make it punchier without changing your attitude.
A) The No List
What he doesn’t touch.
What he doesn’t tolerate.
What he doesn’t trade for growth.
B) The Bar
What counts as “ship-worthy” in his world.
Not what he says-what he repeats.
C) The Filters
The questions he uses to kill 90% of options fast.
The decision gates that keep his work clean.
Here is Dan’s constraint system.
Also, I add Dan’s constraint system to one of my teams’ business notion workspace, let’s see if team can find something changed…. hahahah, super fun.
Here is the prompt, guys.
Step 4: Loop
I don’t have much to add to Step 4. Just repeat the first three steps-over and over-until someone starts pointing out the similarities between you and the person you’re copying.