> You could invest hours, days, or years in a writing project, only to find out that you’ve picked a bad idea that doesn’t interest people.

To paraphrase Elon Musk: Keep asking for criticism, especially negative, about your idea. If your idea has merit, people will like it, and that will result in a better chance of success. If you can't handle negative criticism, then you need to work on your own skills and handling rejection.

Tricking people via this Priceonomics "pre-article-writing" trick just seems like a trick.