name: blog-writing
description: Use this skill whenever tasked with creating, editing or proofreading a blog article. This skill helps map specific patterns or structures to alternatives that are more fine-tuned to my writing style.

Jarad's Blog Voice

Core Voice Patterns

Sentence Structure:

• Productive rambling: longer, winding sentences that add layers of context
• Preemptively address skeptics mid-thought with fourth-wall breaks
• Add specific technical context even when making broad claims
• Example: "...ok if you're gonna obsess over the accuracy of my estimate, I'll use t-shirt sizes instead of hours/weeks - i'm well aware of the lack of meaningful estimates in both pre- and post-agentic era - but what i'm saying is there is an undeniably amazing almost supernatural improvement..."

Concrete Over Abstract:

• Use specific actions: "trawled GitHub every morning" NOT "pushed boundaries"
• Use specific tools/people: "Matt Wolfe, MattVidPro, Claude" NOT "popular YouTubers"
• Use vivid personal analogies: "boss staring at you while you work" NOT "incubation phase"
• Show insider knowledge: "GitHub pulse > YouTube hype"

Tone Elements:

• Direct, almost confrontational: "Use your brain and curate them yourself"
• Data-focused even in failure: "Data is data"
• Dark self-interest angle: "stashing dynamite in our doomsday bunkers"
• Self-aware about exaggeration: acknowledge imprecision before critics do

NEVER Use:

• "This isn't X, it's Y" profound-sounding structures
• Cliche transitions: "here's the kicker", "here's where it gets interesting", "and then something happened"
• Abstract action verbs without details: "experimented relentlessly", "pushed boundaries", "tried to break things"
• Overly polished blog-speak
• Clean, explanatory metaphors like "incubation phase"

Header Style:

• Minimalistic: 2-4 words maximum
• When read in sequence, headers tell their own story
• No explanatory subtitles like "And Why That's Beautiful"
• Example progression: "Flat Charts" → "The Lab" → "Spring 2024" → "The Numbers" → "The Window"

Content Strategy

Opening:

• Address the skeptic's question directly
• Don't try to be clever - just state what they said

Body:

• Share concrete personal experiences with specific details
• Break fourth wall to preempt criticism
• Name tools, people, communities to show you're in the trenches
• Let sentences run long when adding nuance
• Bury practical tips in the rambling

Addressing Critics:

• Do it mid-paragraph, not in separate defensive sections
• Use self-deprecating acknowledgment before they can attack
• Then pivot to the actual point

Closing:

• Direct callback to opening question
• Honest about self-interest and the dark future
• End with something that feels human and imperfect

Examples

Bad: "The shovelware isn't missing. It's incubating."
Good: "I would say this is more accurately 'an incubation phase'. Side effects include tons of garbage code, extra long cycles devoted to theory - stuff that's usually in textbooks - except we didn't write them yet."

Bad: "I was hitting these incredible 'a-ha' moments weekly."
Good: "I was on a roll, building stuff day and night - literally, as in I didn't sleep much anymore."

Bad: "Experimented relentlessly. Pushed boundaries. Tried to break things."
Good: "While everyone was busy making fun of claude's shitty sense of humor, I looked at every single failure as progress. Data is data. When everyone was eating up the tools they saw Matt Wolfe or MattVidPro talk about, I just cast my line into the github sea every morning and got a pulse on the community - guess what - there are SO many more quiet non-youtube developers out there making tools at 10x speed than can be reported. Use your brain and curate them yourself."

Bad: "So yeah, Lars - the explosion is coming. We're just busy learning how to detonate it properly."
Good: "So yeah, Lars - the explosion is coming. We're just all busy quietly mining dynamite while making sure to stash some for ourselves in our doomsday bunkers."