The crumbling skull approach to content

There's a legal principle still used in personal injury lawsuits in Canada called "the crumbling skull defense". ​ --------------------------------------------------------------- -PAID AD- =​ Looking to unlock valuable SEO data for your website for FREE? Look no further than [Ahrefs Webmaster Tools](=). With its completely free service, Ahrefs provides access to a wealth of valuable data for every website you own. Why is this so important? The insights you gain enable you to make informed decisions that can drive your search traffic to new heights. ​ [Sign Up for Free Today](=) FYI, I'm an Ahrefs user. I've used probably every single work day for 5+ years. -END PAID AD- --------------------------------------------------------------- The crumbling skull principle is as the name suggests. Here's a quick explanation. When someone uses the crumbling skull defense, they're basically saying, "Hey, it wasn't really my fault that the person got hurt so badly. They already had health issues or injuries that would have caused the same problems, even if I hadn't done anything." So, imagine you're the one being accused of injuring someone, and you're trying to show that you shouldn't be held fully responsible for someone else's damages. You'd point out that the person was already in pretty bad shape before anything happened between you two. Their "crumbling skull," or worsening health, was already a problem before you came into the picture. To make this defense work, you'd have to back up your argument with solid evidence like medical records, expert opinions, or any other relevant info. If the court agrees with you, they might decide to lower the amount of money the other person gets or split the responsibility between what you did and the other person's pre-existing issues. As you can imagine, the crumbling skull defense is not often successful. Canadian courts much prefer the precept "you take your victim as you find find them, pre-existing conditions and all." This is known as the "thin skull" rule. A concrete example would be a back injury from a car accident. If the injured person had a pre-existing back problem that was progressing, the defendant could argue that the current injury the injured is suing for would have happened anyway. In other word, the negligent person is saying the back injury isn't their fault, or not their fault entirely. Interesting, right? Maybe the name is more interesting than the principle itself. I'm proud to say the term was coined in the Canadian courts but not by me. I shouldn't say "proud" because I don't believe the defense should be successfully used much (which it isn't). I fall more on the the "take your victim as you find them" end of the spectrum. After all, the crumbling skull defense is a slippery slope. It's easily taken too far. After all, if someone negligently kills someone they could argue "well, they were going to die one day anyway so why I should I pay." Absurd, right? Law is like that. It's replete with cases that have resulted in interesting principles still followed to this day. That was fun Jon, but is there a point? Sure is. Fat Stacks is a business publication. Specifically, it caters to the business of niche site publishing. It has nothing to do with law or injuries or anything like that yet I have a hunch some readers will find this interesting. Why? Because based on feedback over the years, readers enjoy newsletters where I drop in references to law and legal issues. I get it actually because the law can be interesting. And that's my point. You can fascinate readers by weaving interesting yet totally unrelated concepts, stories and yes, even legal principles in your content. It's key you tie it together with the niche-relevant content. When you do that, you are carving your own path. It gets better. This is an AI friendly method. The quick explanation of crumbling skull above was thanks to AI. Saved me quite a bit of time writing it myself. And while I suspect Google might take issue with mass-produced copy-cat AI content, I believe that if you use AI to create novel, interesting content, Google not only won't mind but will reward you. Google said as much. I'm not suggesting you go bone up on your legal study. Law is not the only interesting field. Many academic fields have fascinating aspects to them. Psychology, astronomy, philosophy, history... the list goes on. Here's an example. Suppose you're in the skiing niche. I'll stop with the ski niche examples soon. Two weeks remain. Suppose you're writing an article about the various chairlifts at a particular resort. This could be made more interesting with a tidbit about the history of chairlifts. I asked Koala chat and learned the first ski chairlift was used in 1936 at the Sun Valley ski resort in Idaho. The design was based on banana conveyor systems that loaded cargo ships in the tropics. Here's a photo of an early (not the first) chair lift: ​ ​[Ski Lift No.1, Aspen]()​ Go two or more layers deep Depending on the discipline I'm researching, I usually like to go at least two or more layers deep. What I mean by this is if I ask AI a question, the output is usually pretty basic; often commonly known concepts. I then will choose a concept and dig deeper into those to uncover truly interesting tidbits to include. With AI we can stitch together great content faster. It's content curation on steroids. It's not instant content; well it can be, but I tend to prefer taking some extra time to delve deeper (for the content I index in Google). It really doesn't take much longer to make something much better. I've read that some folks have a concern that with AI content, all content will be the same. That may be the case with the click n' publish approach but that's not what I'm doing. With AI we can take articles on any topic in so many directions to make them fascinating. Yeah, you don't want to veer too far off from search intent but at the same time if it's interesting and unique, readers will notice. The more I use AI, the more fascinating it gets. Thanks to AI you have the world's wealth of knowledge at your fingertips. The key is coming up with fascinating ideas (which is the fun part IMO). Give it a shot. Jon Fatstacksblog.com ​ ​ ​ ​ [Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 2016 Hill Drive, North Vancouver, British Columbia V7H 2N5