You made a Skill. Now make it good.
In Module 01 you built your first Skill. It works. But "works" and "good" aren't the same thing — and the whole point of this module is to teach you how to tell the difference.
First question: what kind of thing did you write about?
Didn't finish Module 01 yet? You can still do this one. Just pick the closest match.
Skills mostly fail in three ways.
Before you learn what good looks like, it's easier to notice what bad looks like. Here are the three most common problems — and what to do about each.
Too generic
"My cat is a tabby. She is friendly. She likes treats. She sleeps a lot."
The fix: Every fact could describe a million cats. Replace every generic word with a specific one. "Friendly" → "only friendly to people wearing shoes." "Likes treats" → "demands one specific treat and refuses all others."
Too facty (no personality)
"My dog was born in 2021. He weighs 32 kilograms. He is vaccinated. He has brown fur."
The fix: These are facts from a vet record, not from knowing a dog. Swap at least three of them for things you notice — the way he sits, the sound he makes when he's pretending to be asleep, the specific word that makes him freeze.
Scattered (no feel)
"My brother loves Minecraft. He has a red bike. He plays soccer on Tuesdays. He hates olives."
The fix: Every fact is true but they don't add up to a person. Pick one thread — the funny one, the sweet one, the stubborn one — and make all five facts support that single feel.
Each failure mode has the same root cause: trying to be complete instead of trying to be specific. A Skill doesn't need to tell Claude everything. It needs to tell Claude the things only you would know.
Law 01 of 03
Specificity
"Only you could have written this sentence."
A specific fact is one that couldn't be guessed by a stranger. It's the simplest of the three laws, and also the one most kids skip. Play two rounds of the judging game — pick the better one and tap again to see why.
Round 1. Which fact is more specific?
Round 2. Which description is more specific?
Law 02 of 03
Surprise
"A detail that makes the reader pause."
Specificity is good. Specificity plus surprise is memorable. A surprising fact is one that makes Claude — and any human reading it — pause for a second and think "huh." Two more rounds.
Round 3. Which is more surprising?
Round 4. Which is more surprising?
Surprise is not "weirdness for the sake of weird." If you make up surprising details that aren't true, your Skill gets worse, not better. The good surprise is always the one you didn't invent — it was already there, you just noticed it.
Law 03 of 03
Consistency
"All five facts point at the same feeling."
This one is the hardest of the three. A good Skill doesn't just have specific, surprising facts — it has five facts that all feel like the same person or the same thing. Two final rounds.
Round 5. Which Skill feels more consistent?
Round 6. Which feels more consistent?
Rewrite one of your facts.
Pick any one fact from your Module 01 Skill — the most generic one if you can. Type it in below. We'll check if it's generic enough to need rewriting. Then you try to rewrite it.
Examples of generic → specific
- "My dog is friendly" → "Only friendly to people wearing shoes. Barefoot = suspicion."
- "My cat is old" → "14 years old. Has opinions about which couch cushion she uses on which day of the week."
- "I like the park" → "The park has one swing with a squeak that sounds exactly like 'oh no, oh no.'"
- "My brother is fun" → "My brother makes up songs about whatever we're eating, always in a fake Italian accent."
- "My grandma makes good soup" → "My grandma's soup has one ingredient she won't tell anyone. She says it's oregano. It isn't."
You've learned the three laws.
Now you can look at any Skill — yours or someone else's — and tell why it works. Or why it doesn't.
Specificity
Only you could have written this sentence. Replace every generic word.
Surprise
A detail that makes the reader pause. Never invented — always noticed.
Consistency
All five facts point at the same feeling. The Skill has one voice.
What you just learned
- "Working" and "good" are different. A Skill can be both, but usually only if you try.
- Bad Skills fail in three ways: too generic, too facty, or scattered.
- Specificity: only you could have written this.
- Surprise: a detail that makes the reader pause — found, not invented.
- Consistency: all the facts pull toward the same feeling.
- You can now look at your Module 01 Skill and improve it. That's taste.
This module was about making your Skill better. But Module 03 is about something harder and more interesting: making a Skill for someone else — someone in your family, someone who isn't you. That's where empathy enters Skills Workshop.
★ Before you call it done
Three questions. Same three. Every time.
These are the same three questions for every module in Kindling. They are how you check whether AI did the part it should and you did the part only you could. Tap each one to mark it true.
★ ★ ★