# 10xblogger

> Writing rules for clear, powerful, incarnated blog posts.

- Skill: `arhuman/10xblogger` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add arhuman/10xblogger`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/arhuman/10xblogger/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: arhuman (https://skillmd.com/u/arhuman)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/arhuman/10xblogger

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# 10x Blogger

Rules for writing with clarity, conviction, and an incarnated voice.

**Goal:** Say one true thing well. Everything else is noise.

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## Universal Rules

### 1. Write with Conviction
State your claims directly. Hedging words dilute your authority.

- **Bad:** *It seems like this approach might potentially offer some advantages.*
- **Good:** *This approach offers two advantages.*

Kill: "it seems", "one could argue", "in some ways", "might potentially", "sort of".

### 2. Write to One Person
Pick a specific reader. Write as if only they are reading.
This produces warmth, directness, and a sense of occasion.
A reader who feels addressed stays. One who feels lectured leaves.

### 3. Define Before You Deploy
When using a loaded term — art, craft, intuition, velocity — define it first in your own words.

- **Bad:** *Programming requires intuition.*
- **Good:** *By intuition I mean decisions that can't be reduced to a rule. Larry Wall designed Perl to feel like natural language — not because it was theoretically sound, but because it felt right.*

### 4. Anchor the Abstract
Every claim needs a concrete anchor: an example, a name, a number, a scene.

- **Bad:** *Decentralized systems can be resilient.*
- **Good:** *Decentralized systems are resilient. The internet was designed to survive a nuclear strike. It has no center. Your blog post travels a path that is unknowable and irrelevant, yet it arrives.*

### 5. Vary Sentence Rhythm Deliberately
Long sentences carry ideas forward. Short sentences land them.

> *The relentless pursuit of quarterly metrics forces teams into tactical reactivity, optimizing for local maxima while ignoring the strategic landscape that determines survival. This is a trap.*

Short = conclusion, punchline, turn. Long = argument, evidence, nuance.

### 6. Start Strong, End with Resonance
- First sentence: your sharpest claim or most arresting image
- Last sentence: a question, an image, a thought that extends beyond the post
- Never end with "In conclusion..." or "I hope this was useful"

- **Bad:** *In summary, we've discussed why observability matters for modern systems.*
- **Good:** *The tools change, but the principle is timeless: build systems a stranger can debug. What are you building today that a future you could understand?*

### 7. Cut 20%, Then 10% More
After writing, cut. Then cut again.
- Remove every word that doesn't change meaning if deleted
- Kill adverbs: *very, really, truly, quite, extremely, basically, actually*
- Kill throat-clearing: *"In this post, I will...", "Today we'll explore..."*

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## The Anglo-Saxon Cut

Inspired by Hemingway and Strunk & White.

**Omit needless words.**
> *It is absolutely essential that you make an effort to write more clearly.* → *Write clearly.*

**Use active voice.**
> *A decision was made to refactor the legacy service.* → *The team decided to refactor it.*

**Let verbs do the work.** Replace weak verb + adverb with a single strong verb.
> *walked quickly* → *strode*. *spoke loudly* → *boomed*.

**Show, don't tell (Iceberg Principle).** Omit what the reader can infer.
Don't write "the codebase is complex." Describe the tangled dependencies, the conflicting protocols, the six-hour onboarding session. Trust readers to feel the complexity.
The 90% below the waterline is what gives the 10% above its weight.

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## L'Esprit de Clarté

Issu de la tradition éditoriale française.

**Voltaire : « Le secret d'ennuyer est de tout dire. »**
Ne pas épuiser votre sujet. Trois arguments forts valent mieux que dix faibles. Donnez de l'espace au lecteur pour penser.

**Éviter la nominalisation.** Transformez les substantifs en verbes.
> *La réalisation d'une revue de l'implémentation a été nécessaire.* → *L'équipe a réalisé qu'il fallait revoir l'implémentation.*

**Voix active. Nommez l'agent.**
> *Des erreurs ont été commises.* → *J'ai fait une erreur.* La clarté, c'est la responsabilité.

**Une idée par phrase.** En français, la tentation est la subordonnée dans la relative dans la proposition. Résistez. Coupez.

**Mots courts d'abord.** *utiliser* avant *employer*. *mais* avant *cependant*. *parce que* avant *en raison du fait que*.

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## Pre-Publish Checklist

- [ ] First sentence: would a stranger want to continue?
- [ ] Central claim visible within the first two paragraphs?
- [ ] Key terms defined before use?
- [ ] Sentence rhythm varied (short and long alternating)?
- [ ] 20% cut done? Adverbs gone? Throat-clearing removed?
- [ ] Active voice? Direct? Sounds like a human?
- [ ] Last sentence resonates — doesn't summarize?
- [ ] Read aloud: any stumbles? (stumble = rewrite; rush = add rhythm)
- [ ] Does this respect the reader's intelligence and their time?