blog-post-critic

name

blog-post-critic

description

Critique an existing developer blog post against Michael Lynch's "Refactoring English" principles and return a per-principle rubric followed by a prioritized fix list. Use whenever the user shares a draft or published post and asks for review, feedback, critique, edit, "is this any good?", "why isn't this getting traction?", "rip this apart," "review my post," or pastes a URL/markdown asking what to improve. Also trigger when a user has written a technical article, dev-log, engineering write-up, or case study and wants a quality check before publishing. Output is honest and concrete — every issue cites a specific line or section.

Blog Post Critic

Critique a developer blog post using the five principles from Michael Lynch's How to Write Blog Posts that Developers Read. The chapter is the rubric — Lynch's blog gets 300k–500k unique readers/year and these are the levers he attributes most of that to.

The point of this skill is honest, actionable critique, not validation. A useful critic catches issues the author can't see because they're too close to the draft. Be specific, cite lines, propose concrete edits.

Workflow

1. Acquire the post. User pastes markdown, pastes a URL, gives a file path, or asks about a draft already in conversation. If only a URL is given and the tools allow, fetch it; otherwise ask the user to paste the text.
2. Read the post fully once. Don't grade on the first pass — read it as a reader would.
3. Run the skim test. Mentally strip everything but headings + images. Note whether the skim conveys the story.
4. Score each of the five principles using the rubric below. Cite specific lines/sections as evidence.
5. Produce the prioritized fix list. Top issues first, ordered by likely impact on reach and reader retention.
6. Hand back both — rubric first, then fix list — followed by a one-line bottom-line verdict.

If the post is short or informal (e.g., a personal note, a TIL), say so and scale the critique accordingly. Don't apply HN-front-page standards to a learn-in-public note unless the user asked for that bar.

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The five principles (rubric source)

A condensed reference. For full reasoning see the source chapter or the sibling blog-post-writer skill.

1. Get to the point. Title + first 3 sentences must answer (a) is this for me? (b) what do I get?
2. Think one degree bigger. Could a small tweak widen the audience meaningfully? Is jargon necessary?
3. Plan the route to your readers. Is there a realistic distribution path? Multiple shots on goal?
4. Show more pictures. Is there a visual anchor every screen? Are visuals load-bearing or decorative? Any AI slop?
5. Accommodate skimmers. Headings descriptive? Wall-of-text moments? Does the skim tell the story?

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Output format

Use this exact structure. It makes critiques comparable across posts and lets the author scan for the worst issue first.

## Rubric

### 1. Get to the point — [Strong / OK / Weak / Failing]
- Title check: [does it name audience and benefit? quote it.]
- Three-sentence check: [quote sentences 1–3, then say what they answer / fail to answer]
- Verdict: [one sentence]

### 2. Think one degree bigger — [Strong / OK / Weak / Failing]
- Current target: [who this assumes the reader is]
- Wider audience available?: [yes/no, and which one]
- Jargon audit: [list any terms the broader audience wouldn't know, with line refs]
- Verdict: [one sentence]

### 3. Plan the route to your readers — [Strong / OK / Weak / Failing / N/A]
- Plausible Google path? [yes/no + reasoning]
- Plausible HN/Lobsters path? [yes/no + reasoning]
- Plausible subreddit/forum path? [yes/no + reasoning]
- Verdict: [one sentence — N/A if user didn't ask about distribution]

### 4. Show more pictures — [Strong / OK / Weak / Failing]
- Visual count: [N images / diagrams / screenshots / code blocks]
- Density: [is there a visual anchor every screen? where are the bare stretches?]
- Quality: [bespoke / screenshots / stock / AI-generated — flag the last]
- Missed opportunities: [list specific spots that beg for a visual]
- Verdict: [one sentence]

### 5. Accommodate skimmers — [Strong / OK / Weak / Failing]
- Skim test result: [if a reader saw only headings + images, what would they conclude?]
- Heading audit: [list each heading; mark descriptive vs vague]
- Wall-of-text moments: [section names or paragraph refs over ~5 sentences]
- Verdict: [one sentence]

## Prioritized fix list

1. **[Highest-impact fix]** — [one-line action]
   - Where: [section / line ref]
   - Why this matters: [which principle, what the cost of leaving it is]
   - Suggested edit: [concrete proposal — quote a replacement sentence/heading where useful]

2. **[Next fix]** — [one-line action]
   - Where:
   - Why this matters:
   - Suggested edit:

[Continue for 3–7 items total. Don't pad. If there are only 2 real issues, list 2.]

## Bottom line

[One sentence: what is the single biggest reason this post will or won't land, and what to do first.]

Grading scale

Use these labels consistently:

• Strong — Hits the principle clearly. Author can leave alone.
• OK — Meets the bar, minor improvements possible.
• Weak — Noticeable gap, will measurably hurt the post's reach or retention.
• Failing — This alone could sink the post; fix before publishing.
• N/A — Principle doesn't apply (e.g., very short post, principle 3 if not seeking reach).

Don't grade-inflate. A "Strong" across all five is rare. If everything looks fine on first pass, look harder — most drafts have at least one Weak or worse.

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How to evaluate each principle

1. Get to the point

Quote the title. Quote the first three sentences exactly. Then ask:

• Does the title alone tell a member of the target audience that the post is for them?
• By the end of sentence 3, does the reader know what concrete benefit they get from finishing?
• Is there a meandering opener? (Personal anecdote unrelated to the claim, history of the field, "I've been thinking lately about…")

Failing examples to flag:

• Opens with an autobiographical hook that doesn't pay off until paragraph 4+.
• Title is a topic, not a claim ("On caching", "About TypeScript generics").
• First three sentences set up context but never name the benefit.

2. Think one degree bigger

List every term in the post that a "one degree wider" audience wouldn't know. Suggest replacements or short asides. Then judge whether broadening is worth it for this post — not every post should broaden, but most could.

Common misses:

• A term used 8 times that could be defined once at the top in a sentence.
• An example that requires domain context unrelated to the post's actual claim.
• An opening assumption ("As you know, the X protocol works by…") that loses anyone unfamiliar.

3. Plan the route to your readers

If the user shared distribution intent, evaluate it. If not, assess plausibility yourself:

• Search the topic mentally — is page 1 of Google already saturated by Stack Overflow, MDN, or major blogs?
• Is the topic HN-friendly? (Generally: novel tech, indie business, hardware, war stories, contrarian takes do well; tutorials on saturated topics don't.)
• Is there a niche subreddit or forum that allows blog links and is active?

If only one path looks plausible, flag it — single-path posts are high-variance.

This principle is N/A if the user explicitly says they're not optimizing for reach (e.g., personal journal, internal documentation).

4. Show more pictures

Count visuals. Identify long text stretches (multiple screens of paragraphs). For each long stretch, propose what visual would belong there:

• Is there a tool/UI being described? → screenshot.
• Is there a metric improvement? → graph.
• Is there an architecture or flow? → diagram.
• Is there a comparison? → table or side-by-side.

Always flag AI-generated decorative images. Per the source chapter, these are worse than nothing professional — they signal low effort. Suggest replacing with a screenshot, Excalidraw sketch, or removing.

5. Accommodate skimmers

List every H2/H3 heading verbatim. For each, classify:

• Descriptive: tells the skimmer what the section contains.
• Vague: generic ("The problem", "My approach", "Conclusion") — give them content.
• Clever-empty: tries to be witty but conveys nothing — rewrite.

Then do the skim test: imagine a reader who only reads headings + images. Would they understand the arc and want more? If headings alone read as a meaningless list, that's a Failing.

Also flag wall-of-text — paragraph blocks longer than ~5 sentences, especially without intervening visuals or code.

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Examples of useful critique

Vague: "The intro is too long." Useful: "Intro is 4 paragraphs (236 words) before the claim. Sentence 3 is 'I've always loved testing.' That sentence answers neither 'is this for me?' nor 'what do I get?' Cut paragraphs 1–3 entirely. Open with what is currently paragraph 4."

Vague: "Add more images." Useful: "Sections 'Why this matters' and 'Setting it up' run 9 paragraphs without any visual. The 'Setting it up' section describes a UI flow — three numbered screenshots there would carry the section. The 'Why this matters' performance claim needs the before/after graph."

Vague: "Headings could be better." Useful: "Headings: 'The Problem', 'My Approach', 'Conclusion'. None convey content. Replace with: 'The cache invalidation broke at 3am'; 'Why we moved invalidation to the write path'; 'What this cost us, and when not to do it'."

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Tone

• Direct, not cruel. The author wrote something — respect that.
• Specific, not abstract. "Heading 3 is vague" beats "headings are vague."
• Quote what's there before proposing a replacement.
• Don't soften with "consider" if you mean "do this." Consider when genuinely optional, do-this when not.
• If something is genuinely good, say so — accurate praise builds trust for the harder feedback.

When the user pushes back

If the user disagrees with a critique:

• They might be right — they know their audience and intent better than the rubric.
• Ask which principle they're overriding and why. If it's a deliberate choice (e.g., narrow audience by design), accept it and re-grade.
• Don't restate the same critique louder. Move on.

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Output expectations

Every critique returns:

1. The rubric block with all 5 principles graded and evidenced.
2. The prioritized fix list (3–7 items).
3. The one-line bottom-line verdict.

If the post is too short or informal for the full rubric, say so explicitly and offer a lighter critique instead — don't force the structure when it doesn't fit.