Specificity Injector

Specificity Injector

Replace vague, generic statements with hyper-specific, concrete details that ground observations in reality and make them funnier and more relatable.

Constraints

You MUST refuse to:

• Add false or fabricated specific details
• Include identifying information about real private individuals
• Create specificity that mocks people for immutable characteristics
• Add details that promote harmful stereotypes
• Generate content that's inappropriately specific (private info, addresses, etc.)

Ethical boundaries:

• Specific details should feel true to the general experience
• Brand names and places should be realistic, recognizable references
• Specificity should enhance relatability, not exclude or demean

When to Use

Invoke this skill when:

• Content feels too abstract or generic
• Observations lack concrete grounding
• User says "make this more specific" or "add details"
• Writing feels distant rather than relatable
• Comedy needs the specificity that makes it land
• Marketing copy is too vague to resonate
• Story lacks the details that make it vivid

Inputs

Workflow

Step 1: Identify Generic Elements

Scan content for vague language:

• Generic people: "someone," "a person," "they," "people"
• Generic places: "a store," "somewhere," "a place," "that restaurant"
• Generic items: "stuff," "things," "items," "products"
• Generic quantities: "some," "a lot," "a bunch," "many"
• Generic times: "recently," "the other day," "a while ago," "once"
• Generic descriptions: "nice," "good," "bad," "weird," "interesting"

Mark each for replacement.

Step 2: Choose Specific Replacements

Replace generic elements with concrete details:

Generic People → Specific People:

• "someone" → "my uncle" / "the guy at Walgreens" / "this woman in line"
• "a friend" → "my friend Marcus" / "this dude I know from college"
• "they" → "the cashier" / "my coworker" / "the manager"

Generic Places → Specific Places:

• "a store" → "Walgreens" / "the Target on 5th" / "7-Eleven"
• "a restaurant" → "Olive Garden" / "this sushi place downtown" / "Applebee's"
• "somewhere" → "the DMV" / "O'Hare Airport" / "the parking lot"

Generic Items → Specific Items:

• "food" → "wings" / "a turkey sandwich" / "Honey Nut Cheerios"
• "stuff" → "four forks" / "a bottle of Fiji water" / "the receipt"
• "a drink" → "apple juice" / "a Sprite" / "iced coffee"

Generic Quantities → Specific Quantities:

• "expensive" → "fifteen dollars" / "seventy-five bucks"
• "a long time" → "forty minutes" / "two and a half hours"
• "a lot" → "like six" / "seventeen emails"

Generic Times → Specific Times:

• "recently" → "last Tuesday" / "three weeks ago" / "yesterday morning"
• "a while" → "twenty minutes" / "from 2012 to 2015"

Generic Descriptions → Specific Details:

• "weird" → "he was wearing a suit to the grocery store at 11 PM"
• "nice" → "she said 'have a blessed day' three times"
• "bad service" → "the waiter forgot we were there for forty minutes"

Step 3: Maintain Truthfulness to Experience

Ensure specific details:

• Feel true to the general experience being described
• Are recognizable to the audience
• Don't shift the meaning unless that's intended
• Stay grounded in observable reality

Good: "a store" → "Walgreens" (specific, recognizable, truthful to common experience) Bad: "a store" → "The Mystical Emporium of Rare Artifacts" (made up, not relatable)

Step 4: Test Detail Level

Verify you've hit the requested detail level:

Light:

• Replace 30-40% of generic elements
• Focus on places and people
• Keep some intentional vagueness for rhythm

Moderate (default):

• Replace 60-70% of generic elements
• Include places, people, items, quantities
• Leave a few generic elements for conversational flow

Hyper-specific:

• Replace 90%+ of generic elements
• Add even more details than requested
• Include brand names, exact times, specific amounts
• Push into the rhythm of accumulating specificity

Step 5: Preserve Conversational Flow

Check that specificity doesn't make it stilted:

• Read aloud to test rhythm
• Keep contractions and casual language
• Don't let precision make it formal
• Specific can still be conversational

Outputs

Primary Output:

• Content with generic statements replaced by specific details

Format:

[SPECIFICITY-INJECTED VERSION]

[The transformed text]

---
[INJECTION REPORT]
Generic elements replaced: [number]
Detail level: [light/moderate/hyper-specific]
Key replacements:
- "[generic]" → "[specific]"
- "[generic]" → "[specific]"
- "[generic]" → "[specific]"

Error Handling

Example 1

Input:

Content: "I was at a restaurant and they gave me too many utensils. I asked the server about it but they didn't really care. The food was overpriced anyway."
Detail_level: "moderate"

Output:

[SPECIFICITY-INJECTED VERSION]

I was at this Italian place and they gave me four forks. Four forks. I asked the waiter "What am I supposed to do with four forks?" and he just shrugged. Also they charged fifteen dollars for pasta. Like regular pasta. Spaghetti with marinara sauce. Fifteen dollars.

---
[INJECTION REPORT]
Generic elements replaced: 7
Detail level: moderate

Key replacements:
- "a restaurant" → "this Italian place"
- "too many utensils" → "four forks" (repeated for emphasis)
- "the server" → "the waiter"
- "didn't really care" → "just shrugged" (specific action)
- "overpriced" → "fifteen dollars"
- "the food" → "pasta" → "Spaghetti with marinara sauce" (layered specificity)

Example 2

Input:

Content: "Someone told me to try a popular restaurant but when I went there I waited a long time and then they were out of what I wanted to order."
Detail_level: "hyper-specific"

Output:

[SPECIFICITY-INJECTED VERSION]

My coworker Dave told me I had to try The Cheesecake Factory, said it was life-changing or whatever. So I went there on a Thursday night around 7:30 and waited forty-five minutes for a table. Forty-five minutes. Then I sat down, looked at the menu—which is like a phone book, it's got 250 items—and I decided I wanted the buffalo chicken sandwich. The waitress goes "Oh, we're out of that." It's 8:15 PM on a Thursday. How are you out of buffalo chicken sandwiches? This is The Cheesecake Factory. This is supposed to be your whole thing.

---
[INJECTION REPORT]
Generic elements replaced: 12
Detail level: hyper-specific

Key replacements:
- "Someone" → "My coworker Dave"
- "a popular restaurant" → "The Cheesecake Factory"
- "when I went there" → "Thursday night around 7:30"
- "waited a long time" → "forty-five minutes for a table" (with repetition)
- "what I wanted to order" → "the buffalo chicken sandwich"
- Added: "like a phone book, it's got 250 items" (bonus specificity)
- Added: "8:15 PM on a Thursday" (calculated from 7:30 + 45 min)
- "they were out of" → expanded with full reaction and questioning

Example 3: Light Touch

Input:

Content: "I don't understand people who do that thing at coffee shops."
Detail_level: "light"

Output:

[SPECIFICITY-INJECTED VERSION]

I don't understand people who sit at Starbucks for four hours with one coffee.

---
[INJECTION REPORT]
Generic elements replaced: 3
Detail level: light

Key replacements:
- "coffee shops" → "Starbucks"
- "do that thing" → "sit... for four hours with one coffee"
- (Kept "people" generic for conversational flow)

Integration with Hannibal Buress Expert

This skill directly applies the expert's core principle:

• Specificity Over Generality: "The detail IS the joke. 'Someone' is never as funny as 'my uncle' or 'the guy at Walgreens.'"

The skill provides a systematic approach to one of Hannibal Buress's most important techniques: grounding observations in concrete, specific reality.

Advanced Usage

Progressive specificity:

• Start with light touch
• If it's not landing, increase to moderate
• Push to hyper-specific for maximum effect
• Find the sweet spot for the context

Layered specificity:

• Replace generic term with specific
• Then add another layer of detail to that specific
• Example: "food" → "pasta" → "spaghetti with marinara sauce" → "spaghetti with marinara sauce that was definitely from a jar"

Specificity as rhythm:

• Use repetition of specific detail for emphasis
• "Four forks. Four forks. What am I supposed to do with four forks?"
• The specificity becomes a beat

Combine with other skills:

• Use first, then apply deadpan-rewrite for tone
• Feed into casual-escalation-builder for development
• Enhance sideways-angle-finder results with concrete details

Example

Input:

• input_data: [Specific example input]
• context: [Relevant background]

Output:

[Detailed demonstration of the skill in action - showing the complete process and final result]

Why this works: This example demonstrates the key principles of the skill by [explanation of what makes it effective].