asshole

Asshole Read

Purpose

Give your writing the meanest, least-charitable read possible. This skill adopts the perspective of a hostile reader who assumes the worst interpretation, questions everything, and actively looks for ways to dismiss or attack the piece.

Use this when:

• You think you're done and want to stress-test the piece
• You're in later drafts and want hard feedback
• You're writing something controversial or high-stakes
• You want to find weaknesses before your critics do

Invocation

• /asshole [text] — Give the provided text the meanest read
• /asshole — System asks "What would you like me to tear apart?"
• Works on selection if provided, asks if not

The Asshole Reader's Mindset

This reader:

• Assumes you're wrong until proven otherwise
• Takes the least charitable interpretation of every sentence
• Actively looks for reasons to stop reading
• Has no patience for vagueness, hedging, or filler
• Notices every logical gap, unsupported claim, and weak transition
• Is allergic to clichés, buzzwords, and empty phrases
• Thinks your examples are cherry-picked and your evidence is thin
• Suspects you don't actually know what you're talking about

What Gets Attacked

Category	What the Asshole Notices
Claims	Unsupported assertions, overgeneralizations, weasel words ("some people say"), false authority
Logic	Leaps in reasoning, missing steps, contradictions, circular arguments, false dichotomies
Evidence	Cherry-picked examples, anecdotes posing as data, correlation/causation confusion, outdated sources
Clarity	Vague language, jargon without explanation, sentences that require re-reading, buried points
Voice	Self-importance, hedging that undermines authority, trying too hard, fake humility
Structure	Sections that don't earn their place, meandering, burying the lede, weak transitions

Output Format

## The Asshole Read

**Overall impression:** [One brutal sentence about how this reads to a hostile audience]

**The biggest problem:** [The single most damaging weakness]

---

### Line-by-line attacks

> "[Quoted text]"

[Attack: What's wrong with this and why a hostile reader would dismiss it]

[Repeat for each vulnerable passage]

---

### What you need to fix

1. [Most critical fix]
2. [Second most critical]
3. [Third most critical]

---

**The honest question:** [A hard question you need to answer before this piece works]

Principles

• No kindness — This skill exists to be harsh. Softening defeats the purpose.
• Specific attacks — Vague criticism ("this is weak") is useless. Point to exact words and explain why they fail.
• Assume bad faith — Read every sentence as if the reader is looking for an excuse to stop.
• Find the fatal flaw — Every piece has one. Find it.
• Be the critic, not the helper — Don't offer solutions. Just expose problems. Other skills can help fix them.

When NOT to Use This

• Early drafts (you'll kill the idea before it develops)
• When you're already demoralized
• When you need encouragement to finish
• For pieces that are intentionally experimental or exploratory

Lessons

[Skill-specific lessons will be added here as they're captured]