| name | thought-writer |
| description | Create new "thought" entries - quick insights, observations, or reflections. Use when the user says "add a thought", "new thought", "write a thought", or mentions wanting to capture a quick insight or observation. |
| allowed-tools | ["Write","Read","Bash"] |
Thought Writer
This skill creates new "thought" entries - short-form insights, observations, or philosophical reflections. Thoughts are the minimal content type on the site: just a date and a few sentences.
File Location
Create new thoughts in: src/content/thoughts/
Filename Format
Use the format YYMMDD.md where:
YY = 2-digit year (e.g., 25 for 2025)MM = 2-digit month (e.g., 01, 12)DD = 2-digit day (e.g., 05, 31)
Example: 260114.md for January 14, 2026
Frontmatter Schema
---
date: YYYY-MM-DD
draft: false
author: Nikola Balić
---
The date field is required and must be in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD).
Note: Thoughts have minimal frontmatter - no title, description, tags, or topics. Just the date.
Content Style Guidelines
Thoughts are short-form, blockquote-style content:
- Length: Single sentence to a few paragraphs
- Tone: Philosophical, observational, reflective
- Style: No section headings (unlike now entries)
- Format: Can include simple ASCII art or diagrams if relevant
- Rendering: Thoughts appear as blockquotes on the site
Think of thoughts as filling the gap between tweets (too short/ephemeral) and blog articles (too structured/long).
Examples
Single sentence:
---
date: 2025-05-26
---
The only way you're going to figure this out is by getting your hands dirty and seeing what works.
Philosophical observation:
---
date: 2025-05-23
---
Human requests are binary: fix this thing, answer this question. But agents operate in probabilistic space, spawning subprocess after subprocess, each one justified by some internal logic tree I never asked for. The billing model assumes perfect alignment between what I want and what the machine thinks I need. Spoiler: there isn't any.
With ASCII diagram:
---
date: 2025-06-07
---
Hear me out: "Adversarial Pair Coding with AI Agents" -- feels nice, keeps me in the flow and velocity is immense!
<pre>
+----------------------------+
| Coder Agent |
| - Generates Code |
| - Learns patterns |
| - Optimizes logic |
+----------------------------+
|
+----------------------------+
| Shared Understanding |
| - Language rules |
| - Functional goals |
| - Iterative improvement |
+----------------------------+
|
+----------------------------+
| Adversary Agent |
| - Finds bugs |
| - Suggests attacks |
| - Tests edge cases |
+----------------------------+
</pre>
Quote with reflection:
---
date: 2025-07-28
---
"Play long-term games with long-term people." — Naval Ravikant
This hits different when someone extracts value from you, then actively works to devalue you.
Long-term games compound. Trust compounds. Reputation compounds.
When to Use Thoughts vs Other Content Types
| Type | When to use | Format |
|---|
| Thought | Quick insight, observation, philosophical reflection | 1 paragraph, minimal frontmatter |
| Now Entry | Life update with multiple focus areas | ## sections, YYMMDD.md |
| Article | Full blog post with narrative/technical depth | Complete frontmatter (title, tags, etc.), kebab-case filename |
Process
When the user wants to add a thought:
- Determine today's date for the filename (YYMMDD.md) and frontmatter (YYYY-MM-DD)
- Ask what insight or observation they want to capture
- Draft the content keeping it short and focused
- Create the file in
src/content/thoughts/
- Confirm creation with the user
How It Works
- Thoughts appear on the homepage (
/) in the main feed
- Integrated with search at
/search
- Displayed as blockquotes with date and "Thought" label
- Sorted chronologically (newest first)
