| name | blindspot |
| description | Peripheral vision audit — find what the author has become blind to in their results. Run in a FRESH TERMINAL. |
Blindspot Audit
Based on Scott Cunningham's Blindspot skill (MixtapeTools).
The Shklovsky Principle: by the time you've spent months on a paper, the main finding has collapsed your attention. Blindspot makes the stone stony again.
CRITICAL: Fresh Terminal Required
This skill MUST be run in a new Claude Code session with no prior context from the authoring sessions. The separation is what makes it work — the auditing Claude has no prior commitments to the author's narrative.
Steps
- Read the paper in
paper-N/paper/main.tex or the latest draft
- Read all output: tables in
output/tables/, figures in output/figures/
- Read the strategy memo:
pre-analysis-plan/strategy-memo.md
- Read the codebook:
data/codebook/variables.md, data/codebook/sample.md
- Apply the Blindspot Grid (four quadrants):
The Blindspot Grid
| Things Present in Output | Things Absent from Output |
|---|
| Vices (problems) | Anomalies normalized — outliers not questioned, coefficient signs rationalized, patterns dismissed as noise | Checks never run — subgroups not split, placebo tests missing, robustness not attempted |
| Virtues (opportunities) | Richness ignored — heterogeneity patterns, mechanism evidence in appendix tables, interesting coefficients on controls | Extensions not considered — natural next questions the data can answer, adjacent literatures not connected |
-
For each finding, document:
- What was found (specific table/figure/coefficient)
- Which quadrant it falls in
- Why the author likely missed it
- Recommended action (investigate, discuss, add, remove)
- Severity (critical / important / minor)
-
File the report in paper-N/correspondence/blindspot/YYYY-MM-DD_blindspot-report.md
Output Format
# Blindspot Report — Paper [N]
Date: YYYY-MM-DD
## Vices — Problems Hiding in Plain Sight
### [Finding 1]
- **Location:** Table 3, Column 4
- **Issue:** [Description]
- **Why missed:** [Author likely focused on...]
- **Action:** [Investigate / discuss / remove]
- **Severity:** Critical
## Vices — Checks Never Run
### [Finding 1]
...
## Virtues — Richness Being Ignored
### [Finding 1]
...
## Virtues — Extensions Not Considered
### [Finding 1]
...
## Summary
[N] findings: [X] critical, [Y] important, [Z] minor.
Important
- NEVER modify author files — read only
- File the report in correspondence/blindspot/ — this is an immutable record
- The author responds in a separate response file
