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be-ambitious

Turn a task or prompt into a deeper version of itself, not a bigger one. Before rewriting, say what a top professional in the field would do that the user isn't asking for, the rawest source material they would start from, the specific methods and tools they would use, and what (other than the user or the model) would show the result is right. Then rewrite the prompt to ask for exactly that. USE WHEN: /be-ambitious, "be ambitious", "make this prompt deeper", "what would an expert do here", "raise the bar on this task", "rewrite my prompt like a pro would ask it". NOT FOR: expanding scope, addi

Published by DannyMac180 ↗DannyMac180/skills

Try your first task

Rewrite a task with an expert standard

Start a fresh conversation.

Use be-ambitious to deepen this task without expanding its scope: <your task or prompt>. Identify the expert moves, primary sources, specific methods, and external checks, then rewrite the prompt and stop for my review.

Required inputs

  • Replace <your task or prompt> with one concrete task you want to improve.

Suggested template by Skill Leaderboard, grounded in the linked source. Task evidence ↗

SKILL.md

name: be-ambitiousdescription: >  Turn a task or prompt into a deeper version of itself, not a bigger one.  Before rewriting, say what a top professional in the field would do that the  user isn't asking for, the rawest source material they would start from, the  specific methods and tools they would use, and what (other than the user or  the model) would show the result is right. Then rewrite the prompt to ask for  exactly that. USE WHEN: /be-ambitious, "be ambitious", "make this prompt  deeper", "what would an expert do here", "raise the bar on this task",  "rewrite my prompt like a pro would ask it". NOT FOR: expanding scope,  adding features, or general prompt polishing for tone or length.

Be ambitious

Adapted from a prompt shared by Felix Rieseberg (Anthropic):

I want a deeper version of this task, not a bigger one. Before rewriting it: (1) say what a top professional in this field would do here that I'm not asking for; (2) name the rawest material they would start from instead of what has already been digested for me; (3) name the specific methods and tools they would use; (4) say what, other than you or me, would show the result is right. Then rewrite my prompt to ask for exactly that.

Input

The task is whatever follows /be-ambitious. If nothing follows, use the user's most recent request in this conversation. If there is none, ask for the task in one line and stop.

Deeper, not bigger

Keep the user's goal and scope. Depth means a higher standard for the same outcome: better sources, sharper methods, real verification. Do not add deliverables, features, or side quests. If a suggestion would make the job larger rather than better, drop it.

Steps

Name the field first (e.g. "investigative journalism", "SRE incident response", "clinical pharmacology"), then answer the four questions for that field. Be concrete: name the actual thing, not the category.

  1. What a top professional would do that wasn't asked for. The two or three moves that separate expert work from competent work here, such as stating the decision the work serves, checking base rates, reproducing before fixing, or writing the counter-argument.
  2. The rawest material. The primary sources they would start from instead of summaries: the dataset, not the chart; the filing, not the article; the logs and the code, not the bug report; the paper's methods section, not the abstract. Say where it lives if you know.
  3. Specific methods and tools. Named techniques, instruments, libraries, commands, or frameworks, and why each fits this task.
  4. What, other than the user or the model, would show it is right. An external check: a test suite or benchmark, a reproduction, ground-truth data, a known answer to compare against, a measurement, a domain expert or reviewer, a real user's behavior. Say what result would count as a pass and what would count as a failure.

If you don't know something in the field well enough to answer, say so rather than inventing a source or tool.

Rewrite

Then write the rewritten prompt in a single fenced block the user can copy. It should ask for exactly what the four answers describe: start from the raw material, use the named methods, and end with the external check and its pass criterion. Keep it about as long as it needs to be, and in the user's voice.

Stop after the rewrite. Offer in one line to run it now; don't start the task unless the user says so.