> WRITING_SYSTEM

Writing Guidelines

How we write. The brand guidelines define the voice at a high level — Direct. Technical. Defiant. This document covers how to execute that at the sentence level.

> CONTENTS
> SECTION_01

The Voice

Direct, specific, self-aware. Someone who has built things, seen things, and is choosing to be honest about what they observed rather than what sounds impressive.

> IN THREE WORDS

[1]
Direct. The copy doesn't explain — it declares. Get to the point. No throat-clearing.
[2]
Technical. Assumes intelligence. Treats the reader as a peer, not a prospect. No hand-holding.
[3]
Defiant. Controlled anger. Angry at systems, not people. Channels frustration into a concrete point.

What We Never Sound Like

[✗] CORPORATE
"We're excited to announce..." / "Best-in-class solutions..."
[✗] APOLOGETIC
"We understand this might seem..." / "We're sorry but..."
[✗] VAGUE
"Industry-leading" / "Seamless experience" / "Synergy"
[✗] PLEADING
"Please consider..." / "We'd love if you..."
> SECTION_02

Core Rules

Get to the point. No throat-clearing.

Start with the observation, not the context that leads to it. The reader can catch up.

[✗] BAD
"In today's rapidly evolving tech landscape, it's worth considering how the industry has changed over the past decade."
[✓] GOOD
"I was in the Saint Bow Lane watching three companies simultaneously discover they had no one left who knew how anything worked."

Vary sentence length. Mix short and long.

Short sentences are for verdicts. Long sentences carry arguments. Wall-to-wall short sentences performs urgency rather than earning it. Mix them.

[✗] BAD
"The pipeline is broken. Skills are gone. Companies are struggling."
[✓] GOOD
"The pipeline is broken, not suddenly but incrementally, one defensible decision at a time, until the people who knew how things worked retired or left and nobody was coming up behind them."

Be specific. Use numbers, names, details.

A named pub beats "a pub." 300 applications in an hour beats "strong demand." The specific detail is what makes an observation feel witnessed rather than constructed.

[✗] BAD
"We got a lot of applications when we posted the junior role."
[✓] GOOD
"We had 300 applications on LinkedIn in an hour and had to take the listing down."

Be assertive. Say what you mean.

Make the call. Commit to the statement. Hedging in the prose weakens the point. Use alarm and signal boxes to flag uncertainty — don't soften the prose itself.

[✗] BAD
"This will define the next decade of software development."
[✓] GOOD
"We have years, not decades, before this becomes visible in the way the 80s deindustrialisation was visible."

Assume intelligence.

The reader is technical, sceptical, and has been burned before. Don't explain things they already know. Treat the reader as a peer, not a prospect.

[✗] BAD
"Enshittification — a term coined by Cory Doctorow to describe the process by which platforms degrade over time — is relevant here."
[✓] GOOD
"Cory Doctorow named it: enshittification. The business model doesn't malfunction — this is what it's supposed to do."

Use dark humour when it fits.

Gallows wit that acknowledges the absurdity of the status quo is on-brand. Humour that punches down or trivialises is not.

[✓] GOOD
"Keep the middle managers and the service economy thinking going for a few more years and we'll probably have something to photograph again."
[✓] GOOD
"At least this 404 doesn't require a subscription."

Admit your own role when you have one.

If you're criticising a pattern you participated in, say so. It's more persuasive and more honest.

[✗] BAD
"The industry kept raising the bar for junior hires."
[✓] GOOD
"We ended up hiring someone with three years of experience because that was the minimum the market had conditioned us to expect, and in doing so we repeated exactly the pattern we should have been breaking."
> SECTION_03

What to Kill on Sight

The rhetorical flip

"It's not X. It's Y." sounds decisive. It's a cliché. Say the thing directly.

[✗] BAD
"This isn't a skills gap. It's a pipeline problem." / "That's not a coincidence. That's an autopsy."
[✓] GOOD
"The skills gap is a pipeline problem — the industry stopped training people and is now surprised there are no trained people."

The cascade chain

Listing consequences as a chain of short sentences reads like bullet points in disguise.

[✗] BAD
"No juniors means no seniors. No seniors means no founders. No founders means no next wave."
[✓] GOOD
"A broken pipeline compounds quietly — no juniors, no future seniors, no next wave of companies, no success stories, no exits."

Em dashes in prose

Em dashes become a rhythmic crutch. Most of the time a comma, a colon, or a restructured sentence is cleaner. One genuine parenthetical aside per paragraph is the limit.

[✗] BAD
"The market turned — and companies cut again — discovering they'd cut muscle last time — and were now cutting bone."
[✓] GOOD
"When the market turned, companies cut again, discovering they'd already cut the muscle last time and were now cutting bone."

Grand essay openings

"There is a moment in every technological shift..." is how AI starts essays. Start with the specific observation instead.

Padding

"Additionally, it's worth considering..." is always deletable. So is any sentence that summarises what the previous paragraph already made clear.

> SECTION_04

Banned Phrases

Never use these, ever.

Delve / Dive into / Unpack
Harness / Leverage / Utilize
Game-changer / Cutting-edge
State-of-the-art
"This isn't X. This is Y." — fatal
"It's worth noting that..."
"In today's [adjective] landscape..."
"The honest answer is..."
"Needless to say..."
"At the end of the day..."
Move the needle
Deep dive
Synergy / Paradigm
> SECTION_05

Structure

Opening

Start with the observation. The pub. The conversation. The thing you noticed. Let the reader arrive at the pattern with you rather than being told the conclusion first.

Body

Prose carries the argument. Boxes carry verdicts. Move content to where it belongs structurally — the argument dictates structure, not drafting order.

The ending

Don't summarise. Close the loop back to where the post started — the observation, the image, the specific moment.

> SECTION_06

The Boxes

Three types, used sparingly. Short punchy sentences belong in boxes. Not in the prose.

A strong opinion you'd defend, but might be wrong about. Use for alarming claims you believe but can't prove with certainty.

Something you're certain of. The thing you'd stake the argument on. Use sparingly — if everything is a signal, nothing is.

> USAGE RULES

[1]
Each post can have multiple alarm boxes but only one or two signal boxes. The signal carries weight. Don't dilute it.
[2]
The statement-box is the hard-hitting opening declaration. Used once per post, at the top. Not mid-text.
[3]
Boxes earn their place. If the text before the box doesn't build to it, the box doesn't land.
> SECTION_07

Format Rules

[✓] DO
Write in first person when you were actually there
[✗] DON'T
Use bullet points in prose — if it's a list, make it a sentence
[✓] DO
One idea per paragraph
[✗] DON'T
Add subheadings just to break up long text — only when sections are genuinely distinct
[✓] DO
Bold text only for emphasis that genuinely earns it
[✗] DON'T
Summarise at the end — close the loop, don't recap

The Test

Read it out loud. If it sounds like someone presenting at a conference, rewrite it. If it sounds like someone talking to someone they respect, ship it.

> SECTION_08

Checklist Before Publishing

Does the opening start with the observation rather than the conclusion?
Is every "It's not X. It's Y." rewritten?
Are em dashes in prose removed or reduced to one genuine parenthetical per paragraph maximum?
Is there at least one specific, named detail that couldn't have been made up?
Do the long sentences carry the argument and the short sentences land the verdicts?
Is the content in the right section structurally, not just where it was drafted?
Have you admitted your own role in the problem if you have one?
Does the post end at the observation, not with a summary?
Does it pass the banned phrases check?
Read out loud: does it sound like a person or a press release?

> WRITING GUIDELINES // MARKDOWN

Copy the full writing guidelines as markdown to paste into a doc, repo, or AI prompt.

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