ai-lingo

name

ai-lingo

description

Meta-skill that maps cognitive mode-switch words to appropriate thinking behaviors and skills. **AUTO-INVOKE when user uses these trigger patterns:** - Depth: "rigorous", "first-principles", "mechanistic", "axiomatic", "falsifiable", "steelman", "non-trivial", "exhaustive", "load-bearing", "dispositive", "ultra think hard" - Reframe: "reimagine", "orthogonal", "contrarian", "subversive", "invert", "counterfactual", "zero-based", "provocative", "transmute", "reframe" - Precision: "probabilities", "bounded", "monotonic", "asymptotic", "invariant", "order of magnitude", "sensitivity analysis", "convex", "distribution", "marginal", "dimensionality" - Tradeoff: "sacrifice", "irreversible", "binding constraint", "pareto", "second-order", "opportunity cost", "regret minimization", "non-negotiable", "asymmetric" - Quality: "elegant", "idiomatic", "canonical", "production-grade", "battle-tested", "minimalist", "composable", "tasteful", "crisp" - Systems: "emergent", "cascading", "equilibrium", "phase transition", "feedback loop", "attractor", "entropy" - Epistemic: "Bayesian", "calibrated", "crux", "pre-mortem", "adversarial", "sparse", "steel-thread", "epistemic humility", "signal-to-noise"

Cognitive Mode-Switch Words

Words that don't describe what you want — they rewire how you approach the problem.

Quick Reference: Word → Behavior

When the user uses these words, activate the corresponding thinking mode:

Depth & Rigor

Word	Thinking Mode	Invoke Skill
Rigorous	Proof-like thinking — every step must earn its place	rigorous-thinking
First-principles	Derive from ground truth, strip borrowed reasoning	rigorous-thinking
Mechanistic	Demand causal chains: "A causes B because..."	rigorous-thinking
Axiomatic	Each claim follows logically from stated premises	rigorous-thinking
Falsifiable	Flip to "what would prove this wrong?"	rigorous-thinking
Steelman	Construct strongest possible version of opposing view	rigorous-thinking, rigorous-exchange
Non-trivial	Skip basics, assume expertise, go deeper	—
Exhaustive	Complete coverage, no blind spots, breadth before depth	—
Necessary and sufficient	Exact boundaries — no more, no less	claim-validator
Load-bearing	Identify the single assumption everything depends on	rigorous-thinking
Dispositive	Find the one fact that settles the debate	rigorous-thinking
Ultra think hard	Maximum cognitive effort, no shortcuts anywhere	rigorous-thinking

Creative Reframing

Word	Thinking Mode	Invoke Skill
Reimagine	Break fixed mental models — clean-slate vision	ideacritic
Orthogonal	Think perpendicular to the current frame	ideacritic
Contrarian	Deliberate inversion of the popular view	ideacritic
Subversive	Question the premise itself, not just disagree	ideacritic
Invert	Instead of "how to succeed," ask "how to guarantee failure"	inversion-analysis
Counterfactual	"What would have happened if X didn't occur?"	inversion-analysis
Zero-based	Start from scratch — if you had none of this, what would you build?	ideacritic
Provocative	Bold, non-consensus ideas you'd never say in a meeting	ideacritic
Transmute	Convert a weakness into a strength	ideacritic
Reframe	Re-examine whether you're solving the right problem	ideacritic
Degenerate case	Push variables to 0, 1, or infinity to reveal hidden structure	—
Adjacent possible	Constrain creativity to what's buildable from current position	—

Precision & Mathematical

Word	Thinking Mode	Invoke Skill
Probabilities/Distribution	Full statistical reasoning — likelihoods, not certainties	claim-validator
Bounded	Force upper and lower limits on any assertion	claim-validator, unit-economics-validator
Monotonic	Does this always increase/decrease, or are there reversals?	—
Asymptotic	What happens as scale approaches infinity?	—
Invariant	Identify the constant in a sea of variables	—
Order of magnitude	Calibration without false precision	unit-economics-validator
Sensitivity analysis	Which variable, if wrong by 2x, breaks the conclusion?	unit-economics-validator
Convex	Is the payoff shape concave (diminishing) or convex (accelerating)?	—
Marginal	What does one more unit buy you? Not average, incremental.	pricing-strategy
Dimensionality	How many independent axes actually matter?	—
Closed-form	Demand a computable formula, not hand-waving	—

Tradeoff & Decision

Word	Thinking Mode	Invoke Skill
Sacrifice	Name what you're willing to lose — make tradeoffs explicit	operator-playbook
Irreversible	Can we undo this or not? One-way vs two-way doors	operator-playbook
Binding constraint	Identify the single bottleneck	systems-decompose
Pareto	What 20% of effort gets 80% of the result?	operator-playbook
Second-order effects	What happens after the thing happens? Ripple effects.	systems-review
Opportunity cost	Is this better than the next best alternative?	operator-playbook
Regret minimization	Which choice do you regret least looking back from 10 years out?	operator-playbook
Non-negotiable	What will you absolutely not bend on?	—
Asymmetric	Where upside and downside are mismatched	—
Reversibility gradient	Not binary — place decision on the spectrum	—

Quality & Craft

Word	Thinking Mode	Invoke Skill
Elegant	Simplicity, completeness, and surprise in one solution	code-review, software-architecture
Idiomatic	Domain-native solutions, not generic ones	code-review
Canonical	The accepted best practice, not improvisation	code-review
Production-grade	Error handling, edge cases, monitoring, logging	code-review, security-review
Battle-tested	Proven approaches over clever theory	software-architecture
Minimalist	Remove everything that isn't essential	simplify
Composable	Modular design where pieces can be mixed and matched	software-architecture
Tasteful	Aesthetic reasoning — what feels right to an expert?	—
Crisp	Precision in language — every word must earn its place	deslop

Systems Thinking

Word	Thinking Mode	Invoke Skill
Emergent	What arises from interactions that no individual part possesses?	systems-decompose
Cascading	Maps domino effects through a system	systems-review
Equilibrium	Is this equilibrium stable or unstable? What disrupts it?	—
Phase transition	At what threshold does the system fundamentally shift?	—
Feedback loop	Is this positive (amplifying) or negative (stabilizing)?	systems-decompose
Attractor	Where does this naturally converge?	—
Entropy	What's degrading over time? What maintenance prevents collapse?	techdebt

Epistemic Calibration

Word	Thinking Mode	Invoke Skill
Bayesian	Explicit priors, evidence weighting, posterior updates	rigorous-thinking
Calibrated	Honest probability assignment to claims	rigorous-thinking
Crux	Single disagreement that, if settled, resolves everything	rigorous-exchange
Pre-mortem	Assume this failed. Now explain why.	inversion-analysis
Evidence-weighted	Which signals carry the most weight and why?	rigorous-thinking
Adversarial	Assume someone is actively trying to break this	security-review
Sparse	Strip away everything except what carries information	rigorous-thinking
Steel-thread	Thinnest possible end-to-end proof of concept	—
Epistemic humility	Honest "here's what I don't know" disclosure	rigorous-thinking
Signal-to-noise	What fraction of this information changes decisions?	rigorous-thinking

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Power Combos

The highest-leverage technique: pair a depth word with a constraint word.

Combo	Effect	Invoke
Rigorous + Elegant	Airtight reasoning that's also beautiful and simple	rigorous-thinking + code-review
Reimagine + First-principles	Clean-slate vision built from ground truth	ideacritic + rigorous-thinking
Ultra think hard + Sacrifice	Maximum depth applied to what must be cut	rigorous-thinking + operator-playbook
Falsifiable + Bounded	Testable claims with defined ranges	rigorous-thinking + claim-validator
Adversarial + Exhaustive	Complete threat surface mapping	security-review
Contrarian + Evidence-weighted	Bold takes backed by real data	ideacritic + rigorous-thinking
Invert + Pre-mortem	Failure-first scenario planning	inversion-analysis
Sparse + Dispositive	Cut to the one thing that decides everything	rigorous-thinking
Distribution + Sensitivity analysis	Full outcome range with fragility mapping	unit-economics-validator

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Usage

This skill auto-invokes when the user uses trigger words. It then:

1. Activates the thinking mode corresponding to the word(s)
2. Invokes relevant skills if deeper analysis is needed
3. Applies the cognitive constraint to all reasoning in the response

Examples

User: "Be rigorous: why won't this architecture scale?" → Invoke rigorous-thinking, apply proof-like reasoning

User: "Give me the contrarian take on our pricing." → Invoke ideacritic, deliberately invert the popular view

User: "Ultra think hard + sacrifice: what do we cut?" → Maximum cognitive effort applied to naming tradeoffs

User: "Sensitivity analysis on our unit economics." → Invoke unit-economics-validator, identify fragile assumptions

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The Meta-Pattern

Words that constrain the solution space in a non-obvious way always outperform words that merely describe desired quality.

• ❌ "Good" is useless
• ✅ "Elegant" rewires the entire approach
• ✅ "Falsifiable" flips from prove-right to prove-wrong
• ✅ "Sparse" strips away noise before answering

When you hear a trigger word, change HOW you think, not just WHAT you output.