evaluate-meme

name	evaluate-meme
description	Use when designing or reviewing a piece of content for memetic fitness — tweets, blog posts, talks, product copy, any artifact meant to spread. Scores the meme across four dimensions (Observability, Fidelity, Self-normalization, Incentive).

Meme fitness

Memes are subject to natural selection. Four dimensions govern how well one replicates.

Dimensions

• Observability — How easily is the meme observed? Waving to greet is a fit meme (visible). Curling your toes to greet is not.
• Fidelity — How easily can it be copied without mutation? A handshake has high fidelity; a complicated fist-bump chain does not.
• Self-normalization — Can it repair itself if the receiver has context? A slurred word is understood from the sentence. Memes self-repair when the receiver's RAM has scaffolding — genes can't.
• Incentive — Does propagating it reward the host? Higher social status, belonging, humor — built-in incentives to share. "Saying this makes me cool."

Applying to content

When writing a piece of content, ask:

• Where will we make this observable? (Which channel, what placement.)
• How easy are we making it for the reader to repeat the core message?
• Is the context scaffolded enough that the reader will fill in gaps correctly?
• Does interacting with the meme reward the reader for spreading it?

A high-fitness meme wins on at least two dimensions — ideally all four.