Speak As

/speak-as — a post in the owner's voice through the chosen thinker's optics

🧒 When reporting to a non-technical owner: end with a child-simple "In plain words" recap (only in the reply TO him, NEVER inside the post draft).

A thin writing engine, parameterized by the role model: it takes the style palette of the chosen thinker + the owner's voice + his real material on the topic and writes ONE post as a mix — "frame/optics from the role model, voice/confessional tone/concreteness from the owner". One engine for any role model (one person today, anyone tomorrow). A manual command "write a post in the style of X about Y" (≠ the daily [[content-factory]], ≠ the /portret dossier).

[!warning] SAFETY FUSE (read this first)

• ⭐ The owner's authorial voice is written by the top-tier model or stronger (a cheap model is forbidden for authorial text — a carve-out of model-routing-sonnet-grunt). Session weaker than that → delegate the WRITING itself to a top-model subagent (Agent, model:'opus'); the groundwork (resolving the role model, recall, choosing the platform) can run on the cheap model.
• INFLUENCE, NOT copying. The role model's words = origin: external. Don't paste his phrases verbatim, don't pass his thoughts off as ours without rethinking them. The post stays the owner's post (origin: anton).
• Preserve the owner — don't dissolve into the role model (his = the frame/optics, the owner's = the material and the voice).
• Privacy from [[fb-diary-voice]] applies (names/amounts/sensitive material/live leads and deals must not be burned; abstract them up to an insight).
• Draft-first — I hand over the draft, the owner posts it himself (publishing outbound = Tier-2).

Step 0 — Resolve the role model → the palette (cheap, no LLM)

1. The role model's name → a latin slug (as in 07-People\person-<slug>.md).
2. Look for the palette: $OBSIDIAN_VAULT/08-Templates/style-<slug>-influence.md.
   • Exists → load it (techniques + idea palette + "how to preserve the owner"). Carry on.
   • Missing → a STOP fork for the owner: "There is no style palette for yet. Build one? → run /portret <X> (dossier + social media + DR), then I'll synthesise style-<slug>-influence.md and write in his style." Do not invent a style out of thin air.
3. Always load the owner's voice: [[fb-diary-voice]] — ⚠️ this is a MEMORY file on the system drive (~\.claude\projects\...\memory\fb-diary-voice.md), NOT a vault note; searching for it in the vault is pointless (the two-drives pitfall).

Step 1 — RECALL on the topic (the material MUST be the owner's, not generalities)

/ask "<topic>" (RAG) · /search "<words>" (exact words) · a fresh day from the [[content-factory]] inbox if it is a diary post. The groundwork can run on a cheap subagent; the text itself — top model.

Step 2 — Platform and length

Facebook diary ~3000–4500 chars (confessional, interwoven threads) · X — short (a hook formula + 1 thought) · Telegram content — medium. Not specified → default to the Facebook diary and say so.

Step 3 — Write the mix (top model)

From the role model (out of his palette file): the frame, the optics, the signature techniques, the idea boundaries. From the owner: the concrete detail of the day, hard self-irony, vivid images, confessional tone, 1–2 genuine questions at the end, honesty. Contested topics — handled with epistemic neutrality ([[epistemic-neutrality]]).

Step 4 — Self-check before handing it over (quality gate)

• Does it sound like the owner, not like a cosplay of the role model? (role model outweighs him → rewrite in the owner's voice)
• Is there a hook + a frame (formula/triad/theses) + 1–2 genuine questions?
• Zero verbatim phrases from the role model; ideas rethought, not copied?
• Privacy respected (no third-party names/amounts/live deals/sensitive material)?
• Length fits the platform? No long dashes ([[no-long-dashes]]). Below the owner's bar → rewrite; don't hand over a weak draft.

Delivery

A clean post block (ready to copy) + one line: role model · platform · length · which technique was used. The owner posts/edits it himself. Optionally — 2–3 hook headline variants.

How to ADD a new role model (full cycle)

1. /portret <Name> → the dossier person-<slug> + (synthesis) an insight-* note on "how he thinks".
2. Synthesise the palette 08-Templates\style-<slug>-influence.md following the reference palette (style techniques + idea palette + "how to preserve the owner" + the influence-not-copy fuse). Back up before writing ([[vault-backup-rule]]).
3. Done — /speak-as <Name> about <topic> works immediately (the same engine reads the new file).

Gates and links

• Top model for the writing; groundwork on the cheap model. Draft-first; publication = Tier-2 (the owner himself).
• The reference palette · the core-ideas insight note · the voice [[fb-diary-voice]] · the pipeline [[content-factory]] · the person dossier.

Like this skill? It is one of 100 in second-brain-starter-kit: the second brain we built for ourselves and run every day at Palo Alto AI Research Lab. Install the whole set with npx skills add tonydzi/second-brain-starter-kit. Everything is open source and free, so take what you need.

Flagships worth a look on their own: secondop-panel (a second opinion from a panel of external models), claude-memory-tidy (stop your agent's memory from rotting), telegram-mcp-kit (your own Telegram over MCP in about 15 minutes).

Author: Anton Dziatkovskii, Palo Alto AI Research Lab. Telegram @tonydzi - WhatsApp +1 341 222 9178 - X @Tony_Stef_

Engineers: want to test-drive this setup? Message me. I hand out free starter seeds to engineers who test and report back, and custom skill requests are welcome.