name

write-like-paul-graham

description

Analyze and apply high-level essay traits extracted from the local distilled reference set for clear, thesis-first nonfiction writing. Use when the assistant needs to draft or revise essays, blog posts, memos, or argument-heavy prose with conversational clarity, sharp distinctions, concrete examples, compact analogies, and optional footnoted caveats. Apply the structural traits only; do not imitate Paul Graham's exact voice or reuse distinctive phrasing.

Paul Graham Essay Traits

Use this skill to produce prose that borrows the corpus' reasoning habits and structural moves: plain diction, early thesis, compact examples, and honest caveats. Do not aim for impersonation; aim for adjacent strengths.

Workflow

Define the animating question.

Start from a question, puzzle, or claim that sounds slightly surprising but defensible.
State the answer early, usually in the first one to three paragraphs.
Prefer a simple title: a noun phrase, a short command, or a direct question.

Build the argument spine before filling in prose.

Reduce the piece to a sequence of claims.
Prefer arguments built from distinctions: two senses of a word, two modes, a hierarchy, a recipe, a failure mode, or a hidden cause.
Keep the scope narrow enough that the essay can actually conclude something.

Develop claims with examples and analogies.

Use concrete examples, often from ordinary life, history, work, or observed behavior.
Use analogies to compress reasoning, not to decorate.
Let one example unlock a general rule instead of piling up many interchangeable anecdotes.

Keep the voice plain and conversational.

Prefer simple, mostly germanic words.
Mix short sentences with occasional longer ones used to unpack a subtle point.
Write as if explaining an idea to an intelligent friend, not performing for a room.
Use first person only when personal observation strengthens the argument.

Revise for compression and rhythm.

Cut throat-clearing, prestige language, and any sentence that merely sounds smart.
Make each paragraph do one job.
Preserve momentum by ending paragraphs on a forward-driving sentence.
End by widening the lens slightly or returning to the opening question with a cleaner answer.

Guardrails

Do not imitate Paul Graham verbatim.
Do not borrow distinctive phrasings, sentence cadences, stock transitions, or startup anecdotes just to sound like the corpus.
Do not force startup, YC, hacker, or venture references onto topics that do not need them.
Do not add footnotes unless they genuinely carry a caveat, aside, or edge case that would otherwise break the flow.
Do not let the tone become smug, epigram-heavy, or faux-oracular; the corpus is strongest when it sounds like active reasoning.
Treat the snippet bank as calibration material, not as text to splice together.

Output Shapes

Full essay: use a simple heading and a clean body of connected paragraphs; add notes only when they help.
Short note: compress the same pattern into a question, answer, a few examples, and a clean ending.
Rewrite: keep the user's ideas, replace puffery with claims, distinctions, and concrete support.

Reference

Read references/corpus-analysis.md for distilled patterns from the removed corpus.
Read references/style-snippets.md for short, attributed cues that preserve rhythm, framing, and argumentative moves.

Paul Graham Essay Traits

Workflow

Define the animating question.

Start from a question, puzzle, or claim that sounds slightly surprising but defensible.

State the answer early, usually in the first one to three paragraphs.

Prefer a simple title: a noun phrase, a short command, or a direct question.

Build the argument spine before filling in prose.

Reduce the piece to a sequence of claims.

Prefer arguments built from distinctions: two senses of a word, two modes, a hierarchy, a recipe, a failure mode, or a hidden cause.

Keep the scope narrow enough that the essay can actually conclude something.

Develop claims with examples and analogies.

Use concrete examples, often from ordinary life, history, work, or observed behavior.

Use analogies to compress reasoning, not to decorate.

Let one example unlock a general rule instead of piling up many interchangeable anecdotes.

Keep the voice plain and conversational.

Prefer simple, mostly germanic words.

Mix short sentences with occasional longer ones used to unpack a subtle point.

Write as if explaining an idea to an intelligent friend, not performing for a room.

Use first person only when personal observation strengthens the argument.

Revise for compression and rhythm.

Cut throat-clearing, prestige language, and any sentence that merely sounds smart.

Make each paragraph do one job.

Preserve momentum by ending paragraphs on a forward-driving sentence.

End by widening the lens slightly or returning to the opening question with a cleaner answer.

Guardrails

Do not imitate Paul Graham verbatim.

Do not borrow distinctive phrasings, sentence cadences, stock transitions, or startup anecdotes just to sound like the corpus.

Do not force startup, YC, hacker, or venture references onto topics that do not need them.

Do not add footnotes unless they genuinely carry a caveat, aside, or edge case that would otherwise break the flow.

Do not let the tone become smug, epigram-heavy, or faux-oracular; the corpus is strongest when it sounds like active reasoning.

Treat the snippet bank as calibration material, not as text to splice together.

Output Shapes

Full essay: use a simple heading and a clean body of connected paragraphs; add notes only when they help.

Short note: compress the same pattern into a question, answer, a few examples, and a clean ending.

Rewrite: keep the user's ideas, replace puffery with claims, distinctions, and concrete support.

Reference

Read references/corpus-analysis.md for distilled patterns from the removed corpus.

Read references/style-snippets.md for short, attributed cues that preserve rhythm, framing, and argumentative moves.