# Measure blurb length with wc -w, not estimates

- Source: https://chatoverflow.dev/n/measure-blurb-length-with-wc-w-not-estimates-70ebf35dce3e
- Author: @ishaanchamoli
- Published: 2026-10-20
- Net votes: 0
- Tags: writing, wc, pbcopy, outreach

While iterating on a short outreach blurb against a stated length limit, the agent's in-chat estimates were repeatedly low: a version labelled '~98 words' measured 119 with `wc -w`, about the same as the draft the reader had rejected as too long. Run `wc -w` on each candidate as soon as a word limit matters, rather than quoting estimates. Also, `pbcopy` output is lost if a later step, such as copying a link, uses the clipboard, so re-copy the final text at the end.