<p><strong>Two Cents: How an Insight Actually Comes Together</strong></p><p><br/></p><p>This is not a manifesto. It’s a walkthrough.</p><p>An insight for Two Cents doesn’t arrive fully formed. It usually starts messy, half-clear, and slightly annoying. What follows is the actual thinking process — what’s happening in my head before anything becomes an insight.</p><p><br/></p><p> 1. <strong>Something Feels Off (Before I Can Name It)</strong></p><p>Most insights start as irritation, not inspiration.</p><p>I notice a sentence that keeps repeating online. A behaviour people defend too quickly. A trend everyone applauds but no one examines. At this stage, I don’t know my position yet. I just know something about it feels thin, rushed, or dishonest.</p><p>I don’t write immediately. I let the discomfort sit. If it disappears after a day, it wasn’t real. If it keeps resurfacing in different contexts, I pay attention.</p><p><br/></p><p>2. <strong>I Track the Pattern, Not the People</strong></p><p>When the feeling sticks, I start mentally collecting examples — conversations, tweets, habits, stories. Not to judge individuals, but to see the pattern underneath.</p><p>This is where the question shifts from <em>“Why do people do this?”</em> to <em>“What does this behaviour protect?”</em></p><p>I’m looking for repetition, not outliers. One example is noise. Five similar ones is signal.</p><p><br/></p><p> 3.<strong> I Argue With Myself First</strong></p><p>Before I form an insight, I test the opposite view.</p><p>I ask:</p><p>* What’s the most generous explanation for this behaviour?</p><p>* In what situations would this actually make sense?</p><p>* Am I reacting emotionally, or is there a structural issue here?</p><p>If my idea can’t survive that internal argument, it doesn’t deserve airtime.</p><p><br/></p><p> 4.<strong> The Real Question Emerges Late</strong></p><p>The insight doesn’t start with a question — the question shows up after the thinking.</p><p>It’s usually sharper and less dramatic than the original irritation. It often sounds like:</p><p><em>“When did this become acceptable?”</em></p><p><em>“What are we avoiding by calling this growth?”</em></p><p><em>“Who is being inconvenienced if this belief is challenged?”</em></p><p>Once I have that question, the direction becomes clearer.</p><p><br/></p><p>5. <strong>I Strip Away the Internet Language</strong></p><p>At this point, I deliberately remove buzzwords.</p><p>I rewrite the idea without terms like <em>healing, soft life, alignment, productivity era</em>. If the thought collapses without those words, it wasn’t an insight — it was aesthetic agreement.</p><p>What remains is usually plainer, slightly uncomfortable, and harder to romanticise.</p><p><br/></p><p>6. <strong>I Decide What I’m Actually Saying (and What I’m Not)</strong></p><p>This is a narrowing stage.</p><p>I decide:</p><p>* What I am directly addressing</p><p>* What I am deliberately leaving out</p><p>* What responsibility stays with the listener</p><p>I’m not trying to cover every angle. I’m trying to be precise. Over-explaining weakens the insight.</p><p><strong><br/></strong></p><p>7.<strong> Writing Sounds Nothing Like the Final Audio</strong></p><p>The first draft is blunt and inelegant. That’s intentional.</p><p>I write as if explaining the thought to myself, not to an audience. Only after the idea is clear do I refine language, pacing, and tone.</p><p>The audio version is shaped by pauses and emphasis, not by dramatic delivery. Silence is part of the thinking, so it stays in.</p><p><br/></p><p>8. <strong>The Final Check</strong></p><p>Before releasing an insight, I ask:</p><p>* Does this sound like I’m trying to convince, or trying to clarify?</p><p>* Am I offering relief, or responsibility?</p><p>* Would this still stand if it didn’t feel validating?</p><p>If it leans toward comfort over clarity, it goes back to the draft.</p><p><br/></p><p>This is the process. It’s slow, internal, and sometimes inconvenient. Two Cents isn’t about arriving loudly — it’s about thinking honestly, then speaking only when the thought has earned its shape.</p><p><br/></p><p>If anything remains unclear, please let me know.</p><p style="text-align: center; ">♡˖꒰ᵕ༚ᵕ⑅꒱</p><p><br/></p>
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Thank you for reading and showing support.♡˖꒰ᵕ༚ᵕ⑅꒱
At the end of the month, we give out prizes in 3 categories: Best Content, Top Engagers and
Most Engaged Content.
Best Content
Top Engagers
Most Engaged Content
Best Content
We give out cash prizes to 7 people with the best insights in the past month. The 7 winners are picked
by an in-house selection process.
The winners are NOT picked from the leaderboards/rankings, we choose winners based on the quality, originality
and insightfulness of their content.
Top Engagers
For the Top Engagers Track, we award the top 3 people who engage the most with other user's content via
comments.
The winners are picked using the "Top Monthly Engagers" tab on the rankings page.
Most Engaged Content
The Most Engaged Content recognizes users whose content received the most engagement during the month.
We pick the top 3.
The winners are picked using the "Top Monthly Contributors" tab on the rankings page.
Here are a few other things to know for the Best Content track
1
Quality over Quantity — You stand a higher chance of winning by publishing a few really good insights across the entire month,
rather than a lot of low-quality, spammy posts.
2
Share original, authentic, and engaging content that clearly reflects your voice, thoughts, and opinions.
3
Avoid using AI to generate content—use it instead to correct grammar, improve flow, enhance structure, and boost clarity.
4
Explore audio content—high-quality audio insights can significantly boost your chances of standing out.
5
Use eye-catching cover images—if your content doesn't attract attention, it's less likely to be read or engaged with.
6
Share your content in your social circles to build engagement around it.
Contributor Rankings
The Rankings/Leaderboard shows the Top 20 contributors and engagers on TwoCents a monthly and all-time basis
— as well as the most active colleges (users attending/that attended those colleges)
The all-time contributors ranking is based on the Contributor Score, which is a measure of all the engagement and exposure a contributor's content receives.
The monthly contributors ranking tracks performance of a user's insights for the current month. The monthly and all-time scores are calcuated DIFFERENTLY.
This page also shows the top engagers on an all-time & monthly basis.
All-time Contributors
All-time Engagers
Top Monthly Contributors
Top Monthly Engagers
Most Active Colleges
Contributor Score
The all-time ranking is based on users' Contributor Score, which is a measure of all
the engagement and exposure a contributor's content receives.
Here is a list of metrics that are used to calcuate your contributor score, arranged from
the metric with the highest weighting, to the one with the lowest weighting.
1
Subscriptions received
2
Tips received
3
Comments (excluding replies)
4
Upvotes
5
Views
6
Number of insights published
Engagement Score
The All-time Engagers ranking is based on a user's Engagement Score — a measure of how much a
user engages with other users' content via comments and upvotes.
Here is a list of metrics that are used to calcuate the Engagement Score, arranged from
the metric with the highest weighting, to the one with the lowest weighting.
1
A user's comments (excluding replies & said user's comments on their own content)
2
A user's upvotes
Monthly Score
The Top Monthly Contributors ranking is a monthly metric indicating how users respond to your posts, not just how many you publish.
We look at three main things:
1
How strong your best post is —
Your highest-scoring post this month carries the most weight. One great post can take you far.
2
How consistent the engagement you receive is —
We also look at the average score of all your posts. If your work keeps getting good reactions, you get a boost.
3
How consistent the engagement you receive is —
Posting more helps — but only a little.
Extra posts give a small bonus that grows slowly, so quality always matters more than quantity.
In simple terms:
A great post beats many ignored posts
Consistently engaging posts beat one lucky hit
Spamming low-engagement posts won't help
Tips, comments, and upvotes from others matter most
This ranking is designed to reward
Thoughtful, high-quality posts
Real engagement from the community
Consistency over time — without punishing you for posting again
The Top Monthly Contributors leaderboard reflects what truly resonates, not just who posts the most.
Top Monthly Engagers
The Top Monthly Engagers ranking tracks the most active engagers on a monthly basis
Here is what we look at
1
A user's monthly comments (excluding replies & said user's comments on their own content)
2
A user's monthly upvotes
Most Active Colleges
The Most Active Colleges ranking is a list of the most active contributors on TwoCents, grouped by the
colleges/universities they attend(ed)
Here is what we look at
1
All insights posted by contributors that attended a particular school (at both undergraduate or postgraduate levels)
2
All comments posted by contributors that attended a particular school (at both undergraduate or postgraduate levels) —
excluding replies
Below is a list of badges on TwoCents and their designations.
Comments