Quality
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Extracted Skills
Concrete Language Rewriter
Rewrite abstract, theoretical, or jargon-heavy passages into sensory, schema-based language the audience can already picture — using three named techniques (schema tap, high-concept pitch, generative analogy). Use this skill whenever a draft sounds abstract, strategy-level, or theoretical and the user wants it grounded in concrete imagery the reader can see, hear, touch, or do. Activate when the user says "this sounds abstract", "make it more concrete", "feels jargon-y", "how do I explain this", "rewrite this pitch", "too theoretical", "simplify the language", "ground this", "make it tangible", "the reader can't picture it", "I'm stuck at the strategy level", "translate this into plain language", "make this vivid", "needs an analogy", "give me a one-liner pitch", "explain this to a 5-year-old", "we need a metaphor for this", or provides an abstract passage plus an audience and asks to concretize it. Also triggers when a mission statement, value prop, policy memo, product page, cultural value, onboarding doc, or training scenario reads like a thesaurus of abstractions (synergy, excellence, alignment, optimize, empower, leverage, robust, scalable, best-in-class). The skill does NOT invent fake sensory details to ground a claim the user has not actually made, does NOT score the whole SUCCESs rubric (that is the stickiness-audit skill), and does NOT write full narrative stories (that is the story-framing skill) — it produces a side-by-side before/after rewrite of each flagged abstract passage with the technique used and why.
Core Message Extractor
Extract the single-sentence core of any message — the one thing that must survive if everything else is lost. Use this skill whenever the user asks 'what's my one sentence?', 'simplify this pitch', 'find the core', 'one-liner for this', 'elevator pitch', 'boil this down', 'what's the headline?', 'TL;DR this', 'what's the one thing?', or has a draft, announcement, pitch, product description, speech, or strategy memo that says too many things at once. Also invoke when the user struggles with 'my message isn't landing', 'I have 30 seconds to explain this', 'we can't agree on messaging', 'nobody remembers our pitch', or wants a Commander's Intent, high-concept pitch, tagline, mission statement, or forced prioritization of candidate points. This is the foundation skill for all sticky messaging — run it BEFORE any unexpected/concrete/credible/emotional/story framing work.
Credibility Evidence Selector
Pick the strongest credibility evidence for a claim and kill weak evidence chains with the Sinatra Test. Use this skill whenever the user asks 'how do I prove this?', 'how do I make this more credible?', 'which statistic should I cite?', 'do I need a source for this?', 'how do I build trust?', 'this claim sounds unbelievable', 'they won't believe us', 'we need a case study', 'should I quote an expert?', 'is this testimonial strong enough?', 'which proof point should I lead with?', 'my pitch needs more evidence', 'the numbers aren't landing', 'how do I back this up without a credentials wall?', 'who should say this for maximum credibility?', or 'is one example enough or do I need data?'. Also invoke when the user has a marketing claim, sales pitch, fundraising ask, research finding, policy argument, product benefit, or security/reliability promise and must choose between authority quotes, customer stories, statistics, vivid details, testable demos, or a single hero example. This skill ranks evidence across six named credibility categories (external authority, antiauthority, testable credentials, vivid details, Sinatra Test hero example, statistics-as-illustration) and applies the Sinatra Test as a pass/fail filter to cut weak chains. Run BEFORE shipping any claim that a skeptical audience might doubt.
Curiosity Gap Architect
Build an Unexpected hook for a message, pitch, essay, ad, talk, or email — first break the audience's expected pattern to CAPTURE attention, then open a curiosity gap (a knowledge gap they didn't know existed) to HOLD attention all the way to the core message. Use this skill whenever the user says 'how do I hook them', 'what's my opening line', 'I need to get attention', 'this is boring how do I make it interesting', 'what's my angle', 'stop losing the audience', 'hook for my post', 'cold-open', 'lead paragraph', 'ad headline', 'landing page hero', 'intro for my talk', 'title that makes people click', 'my opening is flat', 'people tune out in the first 10 seconds', 'how do I make this dry topic interesting', 'email subject line', 'tweet hook', 'YouTube intro', 'TED-style opener', 'how Nora Ephron taught leads', 'Cialdini mystery opening', 'how to use surprise without being gimmicky'. Applies the two Unexpected mechanisms from Made to Stick Chapter 2: (1) SURPRISE via schema-break for short-term attention capture, (2) CURIOSITY GAP via Gap Theory of Curiosity (Loewenstein) for long-term attention hold. Every surprise option is scored against the POST-DICTABLE TEST — a good surprise feels inevitable in hindsight and drives home the core message; a gimmicky surprise gets a laugh but the audience can't remember the point. Produces 3 scored hook variants the user can drop into their draft. Does NOT rewrite the body of the message — only the hook and the gap structure. Does NOT manufacture shock or clickbait for its own sake. Relevant for: copywriters, marketers, product marketers, founders pitching, teachers, trainers, public speakers, content writers, journalists, fundraisers, PR, messaging, narrative design, persuasion, attention, Heath brothers, SUCCESs, Unexpected, Gap Theory, Loewenstein, schema break, postdictable, Ephron lead, Nordstrom Nordies, Cialdini Saturn rings, popcorn Silverman.
Curse Of Knowledge Detector
Diagnose a draft for the Curse of Knowledge — the expert blind spot that makes insiders write copy full of unexplained jargon, buried assumptions, strategy-level abstractions, and tacit shared context that lose non-expert audiences. Use this skill whenever reviewing a pitch, announcement, explainer, landing page, onboarding doc, slide, internal memo, or technical write-up for clarity to a non-expert. Activate when the user says things like "why isn't my message landing", "make this clearer", "my audience doesn't get it", "I can't tell if this is too technical", "diagnose this draft", "is this too jargony", "expert blind spot", "tapper listener", "translate for non-experts", "audit this for jargon", "I'm too close to this", or provides a draft plus an audience description and asks for a clarity critique. Also triggers when a user complains that smart readers stare blankly at their copy, when an explainer is full of acronyms, when an announcement leads with context instead of news, or when a strategy deck reads like a mission statement generator. This skill does NOT rewrite the draft end-to-end (that is the message-clinic skill) and does NOT score the full SUCCESs rubric (that is the stickiness-audit skill) — it produces a targeted report of Curse-of-Knowledge violations with locations, reasons, and rewrite guidance.
Emotional Appeal Selector
Choose the emotional lever that will make an audience actually care about a message — and strip out the analytical priming that kills charity before the emotional ask lands. Use this skill whenever a message is technically correct but emotionally flat, whenever the user asks "how do I make them care", "nobody cares about this", "why won't people act", "why should they care", "make this emotional without being cheesy", "motivate people", "this fundraising email isn't working", "rewrite this pitch so it lands", "our cause is important but donations are dropping", or "this announcement is dry and people are ignoring it". Also triggers when the user has a spreadsheet-heavy pitch, a statistics-first fundraising appeal, a recruiting message that lists benefits nobody responds to, a behavior-change campaign that's being ignored, a change-management memo that reads like a policy document, or a mission statement that employees cannot see themselves inside. Applies three named levers from Made to Stick — Association (tap emotions they already have), Self-Interest (what's in it for you, stated plainly), and Identity (who am I and what do people like me do) — plus the Mother Teresa / identifiable-victim rule (one specific person beats aggregate statistics) plus Maslow's eight needs used as a non-hierarchical palette (warning against "Maslow's basement" — assuming others are motivated only by money and security). Critically detects and removes analytical priming — calculations, spreadsheets, statistics placed before an emotional ask — because the mere act of calculation has been shown to reduce charitable response. This skill does NOT manipulate via fear, exploit vulnerability, or produce sympathy-begging copy. It does NOT write the full message end-to-end (pair with a rewriting skill); it produces an emotional-appeal plan — chosen lever, framing, concrete moves, and forbidden moves — that a writer or another skill can execute.
Message Clinic Runner
Run the full Made-to-Stick Idea Clinic on a draft message — diagnose it against SUCCESs, rewrite the weak dimensions, and ship a before/after pair with a one-sentence punch line explaining why the revision works. This is the end-to-end rework orchestrator for ONE draft at a time. Use this skill whenever the user says 'make this stickier', 'rewrite this message', 'improve this draft', 'run the clinic on this', 'full SUCCESs rework', 'before and after rewrite', 'fix this pitch', 'rework this announcement', 'this copy isn't landing — fix it', 'I need a sticky version of this', 'turn this into a kidney-heist version', 'make my announcement memorable', 'revise this fundraising email', 'rewrite this landing page hero', 'clinic this', 'do the Heath brothers treatment on this', 'rewrite end-to-end', or pastes a draft and asks for both a diagnosis AND a rewritten version. Also triggers when the user has already run a stickiness audit and now wants the rewrite executed, or when they hand over a draft plus audience plus goal and say 'just fix it.' Produces message-clinic-output.md containing SITUATION, MESSAGE 1 (original verbatim), DIAGNOSIS (routed through stickiness-audit), MESSAGE 2 (revised draft that preserves the user's tone and brand constraints), and a one-sentence PUNCH LINE explaining the key change and why it works. Delegates targeted fixes to foundation skills (core-message-extractor, curiosity-gap-architect, concrete-language-rewriter, credibility-evidence-selector, emotional-appeal-selector, story-plot-selector, curse-of-knowledge-detector) based on which dimensions scored weak. Preserves voice, brand, and legal constraints the user provides. Also handles the 'already sticky' case — if the draft passes the audit, returns a no-rework verdict with an explanation of why it already works rather than rewriting for the sake of rewriting. Does NOT process multi-message campaigns (one draft per invocation); does NOT replace stickiness-audit for diagnosis-only use; does NOT invent facts or testimonials the user has not supplied.
Stickiness Audit
Run the full SUCCESs stickiness audit on a draft message, pitch, announcement, slide, speech, landing page, or internal memo — the book's capstone diagnostic. Scores the draft across the six SUCCESs principles (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories) plus the Curse of Knowledge villain axis on a 0/1/2 per-dimension scale (it is a checklist, not an equation), quoting evidence from the draft for every score and producing a top-3 prioritized fix list ranked by impact times effort. Use this skill whenever the user says things like "audit this message", "score this draft", "is this sticky", "run the SUCCESs check", "run the checklist", "will people remember this", "how good is this pitch", "rate this against Made to Stick", "does this pass the kidney heist test", "will this land", "stickiness review", "why is nobody remembering our launch", "I need a communications review", or when any user pastes a draft and asks whether it will resonate, be remembered, or change behavior. Also triggers when a user is about to ship a message and wants a last-mile quality gate, when someone asks for a one-page communications critique, or when a team is choosing between two draft versions and needs a principled scoring method. This skill produces a stickiness scorecard with dimension-level verdicts, evidence, prioritized fixes, and a recommendation for which specialist skill to invoke next (curse-of-knowledge-detector, core-message-extractor, curiosity-gap-architect, concrete-language-rewriter, credibility-evidence-selector, emotional-appeal-selector, story-plot-selector, or sticky-message-antipattern-detector). It does NOT perform the end-to-end rewrite — that is owned by the message-clinic workflow.
Sticky Message Antipattern Detector
Scan a draft, pitch, or copy for the named failure modes that kill stickiness — buried leads, decision paralysis, common-sense sedation, semantic stretch, stats-without-story, abstract strategy talk, scope creep, and the direct-message fallacy. Use this skill whenever a user asks to audit a draft, diagnose why a message is not landing, review a pitch, find the problems in copy, spot issues in an announcement, critique a marketing page, debug a speech, or check an internal memo — even when they do not explicitly use the word "stickiness". Activate on phrases like "audit this draft", "what is wrong with this message", "why is not this landing", "find the problems in this copy", "review my pitch", "spot the issues", "this is not resonating", "my announcement fell flat", "tell me what is broken in this email", "diagnose this speech", "why does not anyone remember what I said", "critique my copy", or any situation where the user supplies a short-form prose artifact and asks for a rigorous problem diagnosis rather than a rewrite. The skill produces a flagged-passage report with each instance located, severity-scored, and paired with a fix strategy — it does NOT rewrite the draft end-to-end and does NOT cover the Curse of Knowledge (that is a separate detector) or score the full six-principle SUCCESs rubric (that is a separate audit skill).
Story Plot Selector
Pick the right story plot (Challenge / Connection / Creativity) and structure it so it drives the specific action you need — and decide whether to deliver it as a springboard story or a direct argument. Use this skill whenever the user needs to find, pick, or shape a story, anecdote, or case study for a message, talk, pitch, announcement, training session, change effort, or culture push. Activate on "what story should I tell", "find me an anecdote", "how should I open this presentation", "we need a story here", "help me structure a case study", "which of these stories is the right one", "need an inspiring example", "tell a story about", "I have three anecdotes — pick one", "make this talk more human", "how do I open the all-hands", "what's the right case study for this pitch", "story for a keynote", "story to rally the team", "story for onboarding", "change management story", "need a motivating example", "story that shows why this matters", "the talk needs a narrative", or whenever a draft is pure argument/data and the user wants to replace or supplement a claim with a single concrete tale. Also triggers when the user has raw story material (news clipping, customer anecdote, personal experience, historical event) and asks how to frame or structure it. The skill classifies the story need into Challenge (overcoming obstacles — inspires perseverance), Connection (bridging differences — inspires empathy and cooperation), or Creativity (mental breakthrough — inspires experimentation), applies the matching structure, and decides between a springboard story (audience has agency, diverse contexts, you want buy-in) versus a direct argument (single unambiguous action). Also decides whether the story should work as simulation (mental rehearsal of how to act) or inspiration (motivation to act), or both. The skill does NOT fabricate events or invent characters — it works with real stories the user provides or helps them mine from real material. It does NOT write full emotional appeals (use emotional-appeal-selector) and does NOT score the full stickiness rubric (use stickiness-audit).